Integrity – a precious and rare commodity these days
KAMLOOPS — It was the summer of 2006. We lived on the coast and were in the market for a car. The online ad described exactly what we had in mind: suitable family car, not too big, not too old. The price was a bit high but the mileage was low enough to explain that. The seller was a single mom of three who lived in a small house on a tree-lined street in one of the suburbs.
We test-drove it, examined it and took it to a mechanic nearby though the woman showed us a recent inspection. All good. The next day we went to the local ICBC office to finalize the transaction. A formality, right? It was, until the ICBC staff said, ‘wait a minute.’ At that point, the seller had disappeared, and with her, the money. One of her kids was sick, she said, so she just had to go check on him but she’ll be right back. She did not return, and the car which had more than 400,000 kilometers on it instead of the advertised 110,000 was ours. Can you say fraud? We drove back to the woman’s house to clarify the misunderstanding. The affable lady was gone and a more vicious version of her threatened from behind the door after refusing to answer the phone.
That was an expensive lesson. And a huge disappointment in fellow humans. Later we sold the car for a fraction of the price informing the buyer of the real mileage, and also learned of the ‘single mom selling car’ scheme. Not sure if it’s still a thing nowadays. Likely not, due to CARPROOF vehicle history reports – do insist on one when you buy a car.
Integrity is a big concept; a fragile one. There is something solid and unflinching about a person who shows it. It restores hope in humanity and mends many a broken thread that other people’s deceptive ways create. I can argue that while I would never get hooked by a phone or internet scam – they are often quite obvious, though there are many vulnerable people who do respond and end up losing their money or identity to fraudsters. Being vulnerable has become punishable by scammers, and there is little, most often nothing the scammed can do.