By Sabrina Barich
I still find it hard to believe that this actually happened. Thankfully, sharing this experience will serve a duel purpose—first and foremost as a powerful testimony, but also as a Public Service Announcement…
I’d like to give the disclaimer right at the beginning—just in case any friends or family are reading this and become very concerned around the middle of the story—that it does all work out for good. Just stick it out ‘til the end, I promise!
The backdrop to this experience is that I’ve recently started trying to form a new habit. Every morning, along with surrendering all my plans for the day into God’s hands, I want to specifically ask Him to send someone into my life that day who needs to hear about His love for them. Moral of the story is: Be careful what you pray for! 😉
A few months ago, I started receiving calls to my cell phone every couple of weeks, coming from different Canadian cities—Ottawa, Quebec, Calgary, etc. It was always the same recorded message—that there was a serious issue concerning my SIN number, and that I needed to call them back as soon as possible. Every time I heard this recording I just thought, “This is a scam,” and hung up. But a few weeks ago, I received a phone call coming from Mississauga, and there was actually a live person on the other end. It was a lady who said something like this:
“Hello ma’am, this is the Toronto branch of the RCMP. We have a sensitive matter to discuss and we need to confirm that we’re speaking with the correct person before we share further information. Can you confirm your name please?”
Now, you’ll find out later on why I wouldn’t call this a “mistake” on my part in this particular instance, but generally, never give your name to someone who has called you. I did in this case, but to my defense, no red flags were going up yet screaming “scam,” and I was caught off-guard by how serious it sounded. Regardless, don’t follow my example.
Once she got my name, she started describing the situation. She told me that a federal investigation was going on because it appeared that my SIN number had been comprised. Someone was opening bank accounts all over the country under my name, and these accounts were found to be involved in drug trafficking and money laundering. Immediately the red flags went up. It was a scam. 110%. I’d dealt with phone and email scams many times before, and often was the one warning my friends or family members about them. I immediately starting priding myself in the fact that I “wasn’t going to fall for this.” She continued, saying that with my clean record, age, education etc. they didn’t believe that I was the one doing this, and so they wanted to help protect me as the investigation went forward. It was honestly a very elaborate and well-executed story, but everything inside of me was saying, “Don’t worry about being rude. It’s a scam. Just hang up.” Yet something made me hesitate. She then started asking me to confirm other personal information and I got a bit frustrated. I said, “Look, if this were a real situation then I’d be glad to meet with someone in person to discuss it.” To which she replied, “Oh I’m sorry, this case won’t be shared with your local police. It’s being handled at the federal level since these accounts have been opened in several different provinces. That’s why we need to confirm this information over the phone in order to move forward.” I stood my ground and said, “I’m sorry but I’m not giving that information over the phone,” and I actually hung up. But something compelled me to call the number back to see where it would connect me to. To my surprise, it actually connected me to the “Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Toronto Airport Detachment”—with its official recording and menu options, all offered in English and then French. I hung up again, now wondering how they were able to use the real office phone number for a scam like this. And just as I was pondering, my phone rang again, and I was greeted by the same lady, sounding concerned and confused as to why we’d been “disconnected.” She then continued describing the seriousness of the situation, and eventually said, “I’m going to transfer you to an officer. He can share more with you,” and I was transferred. I then heard a male voice:
“Hello, Sabrina? This is Officer Marcus. …”
Now, “Officer Marcus” impressed me. Oftentimes, broken English is what gives away the nature and true location of these phone calls, but Marcus had very strong English, and a slight accent which sounded to me like it could be French. Pretty believable for an RCMP officer. He explained the situation again, especially working to drive home the seriousness of what was going on and the danger I was in in this case of identity theft. At some point he mentioned that they saw that I was a young Christian woman, and that they didn’t believe I was the one committing these crimes. (By that point I assumed he’d pulled up my social media accounts.) I still wasn’t buying it, but something was keeping me from hanging up on him. Now getting a bit flustered, I glanced up to God,
“Father, I am 99.99999% sure that this is a scam, but something is keeping me from hanging up. You promise to give wisdom to all who ask, so please give me the wisdom to handle this situation how You want me to handle it. I claim this promise for wisdom, and thank You for granting it. In Jesus’ name, amen.”
Then the strangest thing happened. Marcus was still speaking when a change came over me that is difficult to describe. I suddenly felt an overwhelming peace flood my mind, and a strong impression to trust the man on the phone—implicitly; to believe that he was genuine, and to follow his instructions. Suddenly, just like that, I believed he was telling the truth. All of my suspicion melted away.
(This is a good time to remember the disclaimer 😉)
Officer Marcus began explaining that the government would be seizing all bank accounts/credit cards etc. under my name within 24 hrs. And so, they wanted to help me secure my personal accounts before this happened, so that I wouldn’t lose my money. He explained that the “safest way to do this” was for me to transfer my money onto electronic cards, and then close my current accounts. I would keep the cards with me for safe-keeping. Then in a few days, once the investigation had moved forward, they would mail me forms that I could bring with me to my bank to have them redeposit my money from these cards into a new account. He then asked if I had a Rexall or similar store nearby that sold these types of cards. I did. He said to keep him on the phone in my pocket, and he’d give me further instructions once I was in the store. Remember, I was now in a state of complete trust in this man. When I got there, he told me that the first thing I needed to do was to withdraw my credit card balance, so that this other person wouldn’t be able to use it. And so, in this strange daze, I did as he instructed me. I bought several Google Play cards, put $950 on them in total, and went back out to my car.
Officer Marcus then said, “Alright, now take a coin and scratch off the silver bar on the backside of the first card, and read me the code. We’ll put these codes on the forms that you’ll bring to your bank in a few days so that they will accept the cards. Unless we give them these codes on federal forms, they won’t be able to redeposit the money.”
Sounded good to my trusting mind.
I scratched off the first card and read him the string of numbers and letters. There was $200 on that card. When I was finished he said, “Perfect. Now we’ll just do the same with the rest of the cards.”
As soon as he said that phrase, “the rest of the cards,” it was like I suddenly woke up. The blinders fell off and I was in complete shock. All I could think was, “What am I DOING?!” I looked at the stack of cards on the passenger seat, and the card in my hand with the revealed code. I ended the call and my phone fell to the ground. I looked up to God, completely flabbergasted. “What was that?! WHY did you just let me do that?! I just lost $200 to a scam! And now I have $750 stuck on these stupid cards!!”
I was beside myself. Why had God let me down?? Why after praying for wisdom, and claiming His promise to grant it, I’d turned into a complete fool?! I was so confused, and embarrassed, and disappointed with myself, but I could not remember for the life of me what had compelled me to trust this man.
My phone started buzzing again, the same number. I declined the call, leapt into self-preservation mode and started driving to my bank. I didn’t think I had given them any of my actual banking information, but I didn’t want to take any chances. And I wanted to speak to someone in person—no more phone calls. My local branch was just around the corner, but to my surprise it was closed. At 4 pm on a Wednesday… Desperate to protect my accounts, I decided to drive into town to another branch. I was trying to keep myself from fuming the whole way there. I felt like God had completely failed me, but something inside kept saying, “Don’t you trust Me?” and reminding me that it was not my money—it was His. These were not my accounts to protect, they were His. But in my stubbornness, I stuck to my mission and continued driving. My phone was still buzzing.
When I arrived at the building, I saw a sign posted on the door and just thought, “No way…” I walked up to read it—“We’ll be closed on Wednesday, November 6th. Sorry for any inconvenience.” No reason… just closed. Of course they were, on the one day I “needed to talk to someone.” I finally resolved to just call them, cancelled my credit and debit cards over the phone, and ordered new ones. I slumped back in my car, tired and sad. I grabbed the stack of Google Play cards and stuffed them in my purse so I didn’t have to look at them. I drove back home as my phone continued buzzing. By the time I reached the house I had 15 missed calls and a voicemail from Marcus, giving me another number I could reach him at. It was almost time for dinner with my parents, and then I’d planned to go to prayer meeting at my local church. I needed to calm down before I could do either. So I went to my room, spilled out the cards on the floor, took a few deep breaths, and had a conversation with God, which went something like this,
“Father… I have no idea why You let this happen, but I know You answer prayer, and I’m not going to let the enemy tempt me to think otherwise. I surrendered my day to You this morning, and I claimed Your promise for wisdom on the phone. Father, this is Your money… It’s not mine. But I’m upset because I want it to be used for Your work… I want to be a good steward. But now 200 is gone, and the rest is stuck on these cards. I don’t know what to do, but I know that you do. So I’m giving this situation to you, God. And in faith, I thank You for working it out.”
And just like that, I received the promise of Philippians 4:6-7. “The peace that surpasses all understanding” flooded my mind, and God spoke to my heart saying, “Yes, it’s My money. It’s not your concern. It’s in My hands. You can trust Me.”
My peace was completely restored, and as I went to eat with my parents, they didn’t detect that anything concerning had taken place. After eating I got back in my car. But before I drove off to prayer meeting, a sudden intense desire came over me that I would choose to describe, in that moment, as “righteous indignation.” How dare this man steal from my Father… Who did he think he was?! All I wanted to do was get back in touch with Marcus somehow to condemn him—tell him that I knew he’d scammed me, tell him how foolish he was to steal from the God of the Universe, how terrible he was to steal what was meant to help people who really needed it… But I knew I couldn’t call the number back directly, because it connected to the real RCMP office. (By that point I’d realized that the scammers had used the internet to wire through that number from wherever they were really calling from.) But then I remembered his voicemail! I excitedly listened to it and wrote down the number, anxious to give him a piece of my mind. But when I called, the number was no longer in service. I was disappointed, but I decided to give my “righteous indignation” over to God, telling Him that if He wanted me to get in contact with Marcus again, I trusted Him to make the way.
As soon as I prayed that prayer, though, God’s conviction hit me like a ton of bricks. “Sabrina, this anger is NOT of My Spirit. I do not condemn Marcus. I did not send My Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Shocked is an understatement. I was floored. I’d felt so justified in my anger. But now I was faced, as I had been many times before, with the stark contrast between my character and Christ’s. In sheepish repentance I asked Him to forgive me and show me what He would have me do. Again that peace, so much peace filled my heart, yet now accompanied by another element, even stronger—love. Love for Marcus. All of my negative feelings toward him vanished in an instant, and I saw Him through God’s eyes. Christ had died for him, would have died for only him, and he didn’t know how much God loved him. My heart broke and suddenly all I wanted was to tell Marcus that I forgave him, and that God loved him and had such a better plan for his life. I didn’t care about the money at all. I just wanted to share the gospel with Marcus! But I still had no way to contact him, so I repeated the same prayer, though in a very, very different Spirit—that if God wanted me to talk with him again, He would make the way.
The next morning I again claimed the promise that I would get to connect with Marcus, if it was God’s will (I John 5:14-15). If given the chance, I prayed very sincerely that God would keep my thoughts and words under the power of His Spirit, that I would only speak His words and not mine. I actually chose to call the RCMP office that morning to speak to a real officer about the fact that their phone number was being used. Of course, they already knew. They said they’d been getting tons of calls from people who’d been scammed this way, and they’d put out PSA’s on several radio stations to warn people. He said I was very lucky to have only lost $200, as he’d recently spoken with a young lady who’d lost $9000…
About five minutes after I got off the phone with him my phone started buzzing, and I was surprised and thrilled to see that familiar number. I sent a quick, “Thank You!!” up to God. I answered expecting Marcus’ voice, but it was a different man, who started giving me the same spiel. I soon interrupted with, “Is Marcus there?” To which he said, “Um no, there’s no one here named Marcus, this is the RCMP Office.” I said, “Yes, yes I know. I was talking with someone yesterday named Marcus.” He then ignored my question and continued with his script, and I got frustrated. I took my eyes off Christ and let myself feel annoyed that he wasn’t listening to me. Self rose up in me and I burst out, interrupting him—“Look, I know this is a scam, okay? Don’t call this number anymore.” To which he muttered a quick “Ok” and hung up. I instantly realized what I’d done and did a real-life face-palm as my mind screamed at me. I’d just ruined my only chance!! The one shot God gave me to reconnect with Marcus and I blew it! They’d remove my number from the list for sure! Why would they waste their time calling someone again who knew it was a scam? I felt like such a horrible, weak servant and prayed earnestly, “I’m so sorry God! Forgive me!! Overrule my weakness! Please!!” And about 2 minutes later, because God is so gracious, and so patient with us, my phone starting buzzing again. A complete miracle. I said an extra prayer before I answered, and then heard the voice I’d been hoping for—
“Hello, Sabrina? This is Officer Marcus. What happened yesterday??”
I took a deep breath and claimed God’s promise to speak through me.
S: “Marcus… I know what this is, and I want to tell you that I forgive you, and that God loves you.”
He tried to continue the act…
M: “What are you talking about? This is a serious situation Sabrina, there isn’t much time to protect your accounts before…”
S: “Marcus, please listen. I know this is a scam, but I’m not angry. I just want you to know that I forgive you, and God forgives you. He sent His Son to die for you so that you can have a new life, where you won’t have to make money this way. He wants to provide everything you need.”
Now it was his turn to cut me off, and to my amazement, the act finally shattered—
M: “You have no idea what it’s like here,” he shot back. “You can’t understand my situation. You don’t know what I’ve been through. I have to provide somehow.”
Praise the Lord, the walls had fallen. I noticed that as soon as he dropped the RCMP persona, more of a different accent started coming through. I began praying with all I had that “Marcus” wouldn’t hang up on me.
S: “God has a better plan for you if you trust Him. He wants to provide a way for you to have all you need without hurting anyone else.”
M: “That’s just life! Someone gets scammed, so they scam someone else, and they scam someone else. That’s just the way it is!”
S: “I know there is so much suffering and evil in this world, Marcus. It’s everywhere, and it can seem very overwhelming. But God sent His Son here to conquer all of that for us, so that He could give us the power to live above the evil, and have true peace and joy no matter what we’re going through.”
M: “I told you yesterday that I saw you believe in God, and I do appreciate that. But you know… It wasn’t very kind of you to not pick up when I kept trying to call you back! I wasted so much time.”
I held back the urge to chuckle at that reasoning, and prayed for more of Christ’s Spirit.
S: “Well Marcus… I am sorry that your time was wasted. I really am. But you must understand that I was a little bit upset that you had just stolen $200 from me.”
M: “What?.. I didn’t get $200 from you.”
S: “Yes… I gave you the code for the first card.”
M: “No, I don’t know what happened, it wouldn’t go through. You still have that money.”
Look. At. God. Though.
From that point on I don’t remember every detail, but we talked for at least 20 minutes. I shared the simple message of God’s love with him, including my own testimony of Him being such a faithful Provider. He listened quietly, making a few comments here and there. At the end of it all he was quiet for a moment before he asked in a small voice, “Would you be willing to pray for me?”
Praise the Lord. I said of course I would, and I asked if I could pray with him right then. He said sure, so I began to pray aloud with him. I asked that God would reveal Himself to him in a mighty way, that he would know how much He loves him, and receive the new life available to him in Jesus. I asked that God would help him to trust Him as His Provider, and show him the path which will lead him into fullness of joy. I thanked God for giving me a new friend and brother in Marcus, and I claimed victory for him over all the stress and pressures of this world, in Jesus’ name. When it was over, he thanked me, and said he had really needed it. Glory to God. He then said something that took me by surprise,
“I saw online that you have a webpage… The Hope of Glory?…”
Of course he had. God truly uses all things for good. I told him that it was my personal ministry page, for posting videos, testimonies, and Bible studies to help people get to know God better. He said he would check it out, and follow my future posts for more spiritual encouragement. He thanked me again and we said goodbye.
When that call ended, I cannot describe the joy that surged through me. I jumped up out of my chair and I could not stop praising and thanking God. Even if I had lost the $200, it would’ve been worth it. Even if I would’ve lost the whole $950, it would’ve been worth it. I finally experienced the truth that the wealth of this earth dwindles into insignificance when compared with the worth of a single soul for whom Jesus died. I don’t know what country Marcus lives in, but its possible that he could never have been exposed to the true gospel any other way. God knew exactly what He was doing. He had answered my prayer for a soul to share His love with. And though my faith was so small in the moment I’d thought the money had been lost, nothing had been lost at all.
God taught me so many things through this experience. He really tested me in whether my faith was genuine, especially in believing He had answered a prayer that it hadn’t seemed like He’d answered. I prayed for wisdom, and then He’d influenced me to act foolishly! But this is why 1 Corinthians 1:25 says that “the foolishness of God is wiser than man.” I’d had this pride in me, thinking that I was too “smart” to ever be pulled into a scam like this. God needed to humble me in order to use me, so He turned me into a fool.
1 Corinthians 3:18 “Let no one deceive himself. If anyone among you seems to be wise in this age, let him become a fool that he may become wise.”
He also tested me in whether or not I truly believe that all I have is His. I can say the words, “all of my money belongs to God”, but if that money is stolen or used in a way that I don’t approve of, and I feel like I have been personally stolen from, allowing hurt and anger to rise up in me, then my words are empty. Because if it’s God’s money, then it’s God’s money. Not mine. And He is more than capable of taking care of that money, and using it, multiplying it, or depleting it as He pleases. My role is just to be a willing instrument in that, and not question His methods.
But the biggest way that God used this experience was to really expose the state of my heart, and how much I need to deeply surrender to Christ every day. When I felt that “righteous indignation,” I believed that condemning this man would be the honorable thing to do for God. But God showed me that that was not the Spirit of Christ, revealing to me just how deeply deceived we are as humans in our concept of God’s character. He only has love toward this man. All He wanted was for him to receive His Son and be freed from the chains that were binding him.
As humans we must remember that we are all the same. Any one of us born and raised where this man was, going through whatever he’s gone through, and being in a place of desperation, could end up in the very same situation. For us to think otherwise is to kid ourselves. Jesus said, “No one is good but one, that is God.” (Mark 10:18) Any goodness that we have is a gift from Him. All we can say is, “But for the grace of God, go I.”
So just as God has extended this grace to us, He needs us to extend it to others. This is why He said through Paul:
Romans 12:17, 21 “Repay no one evil for evil. Have regard for good things in the sight of all men. … Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.”
If we condemn someone else for doing us wrong, we’re only revealing the anger in our own hearts which is not of God, proving us to be just as needing of grace as they are. Remember the verse God brought to my mind:
John 3:17 “For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.”
Likewise, God did not send the Spirit of His Son into us to condemn the world, but that we could be co-workers with Him in bringing people to salvation. And this is the counsel He has given us, in Luke 6:27-36, Jesus said:
“But I say to you who hear: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you. To him who strikes you on the one cheek, offer the other also. And from him who takes away your cloak, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks of you. And from him who takes away your goods do not ask them back. And just as you want men to do to you, you also do to them likewise. But if you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners love those who love them. And if you do good to those who do good to you, what credit is that to you? For even sinners do the same. And if you lend to those from whom you hope to receive back, what credit is that to you? For even sinners lend to sinners to receive as much back. But love your enemies, do good, and lend, hoping for nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High. For He is kind to the unthankful and evil. Therefore be merciful, just as your Father also is merciful.”
“Marcus,” if you ever read this, I hope you know how much our interaction has impacted me, and I pray that you’ll continue seeking God’s will in your life and learning to lean upon Him. I know He has amazing plans for you.
To all who profess Christianity, let us walk as Christ walked. Let us love as He loved—at all times, and in all circumstances. You may be the only vessel through which someone has the chance to see His love for them.
John 13:35 “By this all will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”
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