We got scammed this week, but I don’t feel ashamed. It can happen to anybody. Recently, the financial advice columnist for New York Magazine was talked into handing over a shoebox with $50,000 in cash to someone in the back seat of a black car. Before you write her off as an idiot, read a couple of articles. Her own story is at the end of mine, but you can also google for recent stories about scams.
My wife received a phone call from someone purporting to be from our internet provider. He was offering a promo that would reduce our monthly fee around $15 to $20 because we were loyal customers. She was skeptical at first, but he seemed to have all of our information, and the offer did not seem too good to be true. After a while she verified our account number and the security code on our monthly bill. In retrospect, he obviously could not have known either of these numbers. She did, however, refuse to give him the last four digits of a social security number – an ironclad rule in our house is this is never given out over the phone. The salesman gave my wife his direct phone number and name, and said to call with any questions.
Some hours later, I received an email from our provider thanking us for the service upgrade. It showed an order had been placed to give us unlimited streaming, deluxe sports package for TV, etc etc. to the tune of $250 a month. I asked my wife if she had ordered that and learned about the earlier call. I went online, found our provider’s ‘contact us’ phone number and called. After holding and talking with a couple of humans, the order was cancelled and we were back to our original plan.
Three hours later, another email showed up. This one increased our monthly bill by $450+ and said three of Apple’s best phones were being shipped to us. Interestingly, the whole order was charged to a credit card that we do not own (stolen, probably). Another phone call, this time to the Fraud department, cancelled that, and a hold was put on the shipment. The shipper, however, sent me a text that our package was on the way and gave me a tracking number. Two days later, we got a phone call. It was our provider saying the package we had not ordered was on its way, and when we received it, to call back for a return authorization and prepaid shipping label. I agreed, and he gave us a phone number which happened to be the same number as the first guy had given us. (This fellow also had a rather pronounced accent that made me immediately suspicious.)
The phones arrived the next day. I am still waiting for our provider to send us said prepaid shipping label and am getting more than a little irked with them for dragging their collective butts. I might just have to charge them a storage fee for this package.
Some lessons I’ve learned from this rather painless experience. If you think you cannot be scammed, know that scammers are personable, articulate, friendly types, who under different circumstances would likely be your best friend. They are not going to sound like a thug, but more like your banker, teller, or checkout person who is just a regular fellow.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/scam-tips-columnist-50k/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/06/scams-online-guide/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/29/what-do-scammed-money-victim-fraud/
My wife received a phone call from someone purporting to be from our internet provider. He was offering a promo that would reduce our monthly fee around $15 to $20 because we were loyal customers. She was skeptical at first, but he seemed to have all of our information, and the offer did not seem too good to be true. After a while she verified our account number and the security code on our monthly bill. In retrospect, he obviously could not have known either of these numbers. She did, however, refuse to give him the last four digits of a social security number – an ironclad rule in our house is this is never given out over the phone. The salesman gave my wife his direct phone number and name, and said to call with any questions.
Some hours later, I received an email from our provider thanking us for the service upgrade. It showed an order had been placed to give us unlimited streaming, deluxe sports package for TV, etc etc. to the tune of $250 a month. I asked my wife if she had ordered that and learned about the earlier call. I went online, found our provider’s ‘contact us’ phone number and called. After holding and talking with a couple of humans, the order was cancelled and we were back to our original plan.
Three hours later, another email showed up. This one increased our monthly bill by $450+ and said three of Apple’s best phones were being shipped to us. Interestingly, the whole order was charged to a credit card that we do not own (stolen, probably). Another phone call, this time to the Fraud department, cancelled that, and a hold was put on the shipment. The shipper, however, sent me a text that our package was on the way and gave me a tracking number. Two days later, we got a phone call. It was our provider saying the package we had not ordered was on its way, and when we received it, to call back for a return authorization and prepaid shipping label. I agreed, and he gave us a phone number which happened to be the same number as the first guy had given us. (This fellow also had a rather pronounced accent that made me immediately suspicious.)
The phones arrived the next day. I am still waiting for our provider to send us said prepaid shipping label and am getting more than a little irked with them for dragging their collective butts. I might just have to charge them a storage fee for this package.
Some lessons I’ve learned from this rather painless experience. If you think you cannot be scammed, know that scammers are personable, articulate, friendly types, who under different circumstances would likely be your best friend. They are not going to sound like a thug, but more like your banker, teller, or checkout person who is just a regular fellow.
- Don’t engage with these folks. Don’t talk to them. If you pick up the phone and it is Amazon, Google, or nVidia calling, Hang Up! You don’t need what they are selling and those companies do not do direct marketing. Think about the carnival guy who guesses your age. He is friendly, talks to you, asks where you grew up, if knew so and so in high school and soon you tell him when you graduated. After a few minutes, he knows more about you than you realize. Your age is evident. The more you talk, the more information you give up.
- If someone calls that sounds real, hang up on them, get their phone number from #4 below and call them back. Tell them you were disconnected and want to avail yourself of their free offer of a ‘round the world cruise for two….
- Some information does not go out over the phone. Period. There is NEVER a good reason to give someone your SS number over the phone, unless you initiate the call to a verified phone number. Even then, we do not give it out. We have cancelled credit cards that want our SS no. every time we call customer service.
- Getting a phone number via a google search is NOT verified – go to the company’s website and find the “Contact us” box.
- One of the fraud guys at my internet provider asked me for my account password. I said, “At this point, how do I know I can trust you?”, and got a good laugh. He said they were trained never to give out any information, only receive it to verify what they had. Good to know. I am reasonably sure these folks do NOT have certain info, and were they to ask, it would ring alarm bells.
- Fraudsters know a lot about you and me before they call. Google your name or spend $6 on the White Pages and be prepared to be amazed at the info that is out there. Any salesman is trained to know who he is selling to and to research the person he will see before the sales call.
- Any good scam artist will ask for information “to verify” what it shows on your profile.
- If you have caller id, and it shows the call is coming from Cleveland, MO, unless you know someone in Missouri, ignore it. If you do answer, ask where they are calling from – when they spoof the city, the caller does not know what it will be. Better yet, reread #1 above.
- Most large companies have a policy of not allowing employees to give out last names, so you are going to be talking to Jim, Florence, Lynn, and Joe. Few have direct calling to the Fraud Dept. I had to navigate robots, wait for a human, and again wait while being transferred. Dealing with this is a hassle.
- Get a password manager and create strong passwords for every different account you have. 1Password and Dashlane are highly recommended. If you use the same password for more than one account you are the low hanging fruit. While it is true that some passwords can be broken by computer programs, most scams take place by ‘phishing’ – people giving up information to the crook.
- One of the articles I read said ‘listen to your gut’. If something feels fishy, step back, consult a trusted friend or advisor and then renew the engagement.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/scam-tips-columnist-50k/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2022/09/06/scams-online-guide/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/12/29/what-do-scammed-money-victim-fraud/
