An old guy just consulted with me after he got scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars! LESSON: make sure stuff like this doesn't happen to you.
HOW IT GOT STARTED: he noticed a very big charge on his credit card bill.
He called the credit card company over the phone, and they told them the credit card charge was from a certain company that he had an ongoing relationship with (but never for such a large amount).
HE SAYS THAT HE ALREADY HAD THE NUMBER FOR THIS COMPANY IN HIS RECORDS AT HOME AND HE DID NOT USE THE INTERNET TO LOOK UP THEIR NUMBER ... I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S ACTUALLY TRUE OR JUST HOW HE REMEMBERS IT. BUT HE CALLED WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS THE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER FOR THIS COMPUTER AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANY .
Well, I don't think he actually called that company --he called SCAMMERS who answered the phone in that company's name and pretended they were customer service staff and managers at that giant tech company.
So, here's how they got the SCAM started: A very friendly customer service person (who sounded like a regular native-born American who spoke perfect English.) said that the charges are legitimate but because they raised their prices recently without giving a very thorough and effective notice about that, the "customer service rep" said that he would give this old guy a $200 credit towards future services.
Then the customer service rep got the victim to confirm his bank account, routing number, and date of birth, Social Security, and all that stuff. The victim answered all the questions, thinking that this was necessary to put a couple hundred bucks credit on his account. (Yeah, I know that doesn't make logical sense; giving somebody cash directly into their bank account is not the same as giving them an in-store credit with a certain merchant....)
The next day that same customer service person calls the victim and says there was a problem : he accidentally sent $20,000 into the victim's account not 200 bucks. And the customer service guy says he's going to get fired may be arrested for incompetence, financial mismanagement, whatever. He's got family members that depend on him and he can't lose his job. He's really scared. He sends the victim a link and says if you click it you'll see the page on your bank showing I accidentally put $20,000 in --that's the PROOF I paid you $19,800 more than I meant to. And I need to get that $$ back from you ASAP before the company notices."
So, at that point the victim not only agrees to give nearly 20 grand "back to" the scammer but out of concern that the scammer will get fired or arrested he cooperates in being sneaky and devious --lying to bank branch managers about why he needs to tap into his retirement account and do wire transfers to another country etc. One bank manager said it sounded like he was being victimized and defrauded and wouldn't process the transaction. 👍 But the con man told him over the phone that he could do it through ATM cash withdrawals. I think they hit this guy two different ways :
1--getting him to take out a lot of cash money from ATM machines then depositing them in a different ATM machine using the account number of the scammers' temporary account,
but then they also
2-- convinced him to let them have remote access to his computer to do online banking, and they just wire transferred money out to the scammers' account.
This guy isn't dumb --he's a retired engineer with a college degree and has always been active in his church and other civic organizations and clubs. He's a proverbial pillar of the community-- not the town imbecile.
But they suckered him in. And counted on his good nature and cooperative personality to go along with some pretty unusual proposals.
HOW IT GOT STARTED: he noticed a very big charge on his credit card bill.
He called the credit card company over the phone, and they told them the credit card charge was from a certain company that he had an ongoing relationship with (but never for such a large amount).
HE SAYS THAT HE ALREADY HAD THE NUMBER FOR THIS COMPANY IN HIS RECORDS AT HOME AND HE DID NOT USE THE INTERNET TO LOOK UP THEIR NUMBER ... I DON'T KNOW IF THAT'S ACTUALLY TRUE OR JUST HOW HE REMEMBERS IT. BUT HE CALLED WHAT HE THOUGHT WAS THE CUSTOMER SERVICE NUMBER FOR THIS COMPUTER AND TECHNOLOGY COMPANY .
Well, I don't think he actually called that company --he called SCAMMERS who answered the phone in that company's name and pretended they were customer service staff and managers at that giant tech company.
So, here's how they got the SCAM started: A very friendly customer service person (who sounded like a regular native-born American who spoke perfect English.) said that the charges are legitimate but because they raised their prices recently without giving a very thorough and effective notice about that, the "customer service rep" said that he would give this old guy a $200 credit towards future services.
Then the customer service rep got the victim to confirm his bank account, routing number, and date of birth, Social Security, and all that stuff. The victim answered all the questions, thinking that this was necessary to put a couple hundred bucks credit on his account. (Yeah, I know that doesn't make logical sense; giving somebody cash directly into their bank account is not the same as giving them an in-store credit with a certain merchant....)
The next day that same customer service person calls the victim and says there was a problem : he accidentally sent $20,000 into the victim's account not 200 bucks. And the customer service guy says he's going to get fired may be arrested for incompetence, financial mismanagement, whatever. He's got family members that depend on him and he can't lose his job. He's really scared. He sends the victim a link and says if you click it you'll see the page on your bank showing I accidentally put $20,000 in --that's the PROOF I paid you $19,800 more than I meant to. And I need to get that $$ back from you ASAP before the company notices."
So, at that point the victim not only agrees to give nearly 20 grand "back to" the scammer but out of concern that the scammer will get fired or arrested he cooperates in being sneaky and devious --lying to bank branch managers about why he needs to tap into his retirement account and do wire transfers to another country etc. One bank manager said it sounded like he was being victimized and defrauded and wouldn't process the transaction. 👍 But the con man told him over the phone that he could do it through ATM cash withdrawals. I think they hit this guy two different ways :
1--getting him to take out a lot of cash money from ATM machines then depositing them in a different ATM machine using the account number of the scammers' temporary account,
but then they also
2-- convinced him to let them have remote access to his computer to do online banking, and they just wire transferred money out to the scammers' account.
This guy isn't dumb --he's a retired engineer with a college degree and has always been active in his church and other civic organizations and clubs. He's a proverbial pillar of the community-- not the town imbecile.
But they suckered him in. And counted on his good nature and cooperative personality to go along with some pretty unusual proposals.
