CRUEL SCHEME
I was forced to close my whole bank account after a phone call from Microsoft – I was told I had a $450 rebate coming
Scammers have been robbing unsuspecting people all over the country
A SENIOR citizen has almost lost everything after a suspicious phone call led her right into a scammer's trap.
Ann, 79, was shocked when she was told that she was getting a rebate from Microsoft, but she quickly found out it was too good to be true.
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The elderly victim explained that she received a call saying she paid too much for her computer.
"He said he had $450 that he would put into my checking account. I thought, wow. I thought he would send it to me in the mail. Then he told me to go to these certain places on my computer,” Ann told Record-Herald.
The person on the line told her to go to her computer and instructed her on how to receive the rebate.
While she was not sure how this helped, she admittedly trusted the person on the other end of the phone.
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“It’s amazing what all he knew about me already, and he said, go to your checking account, and so stupid me, I go, because I pay online. I thought, well, Microsoft, it’s a reliable company, right?" Ann asked.
"So stupid me, I go to my checking account, then he says, type in your password. So stupid me did that, because he said he was going to send that $450 and put it in my checking account.
"So I said, oh, well instead of sending it to me in the mail, he would put it in my checking account. Stupid me, I gave him my checking account.”
After she gave the person her personal information, she initially thought everything was fine.
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They told her they would follow up on Monday, but she never heard from them again.
"Of course I didn’t get a phone call and I was telling my daughter about it and she said, ‘Mom, let’s go into your checking account,’” said Ann.
I was hoodwinked twice & lost $468k after answering two separate messages - the second time I was looking for help
After listening to her daughter, she quickly found three security alerts, stopping the scammers in their tracks.
“ I never did get any money in my checking account because I’ve got that security and that lock on it from the bank, and thank God I’ve got that," she said.
However, because she gave the fraudster important financial information, she had to shut down her bank account and start fresh.
“It’s a nightmare. I think everyone should be aware,” she said.
Phone scam statistics
Americans are bombarded with three billion spam phone calls a month. What are the figures regarding the number of victims and the amount of money lost to fraudsters
- In 2022, Americans lost some $39.5 billion to phone scams, with 68.4 million US citizens affected, according to TechReport.
- The average phone scam victim lost $567.41 each in 2021, a major rise on the 2021 figure of $182 per victim, according to Hiya.
- The majority of scams happen over the phone, with fraudsters twice as likely to call compared to text in 2021, as reports the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
- In 2021, the US saw a 56% increase in spam phone calls with 60% of those being robocalls.
- US residents experienced an average of 18 spam phone calls per month, although some experts believe the true figure may be as high as 31 per month.
- Many phone calls from reputable businesses may be marked wrongly as spam, but 38% of companies have no idea whether they’re being marked as “potential fraud” or not, according to Hiya.
- Never hand over any personal or financial information if you suspect a phone call is a scam. For instance, your bank will never ask you for such details in full over the phone.
- To cut down on spam phone calls and scams, sign up for the Do Not Call Registry. Telemarketers, by law, will need to check that list before they call you up.
- Downloading third-party apps such as Hiya, Nomorobo, or Truecaller can help filter out annoying spam calls.
- Try not to share your phone number unless you have to, especially online or with sketchy sources.
'IT BLOWS MY MIND'
Unfortunately, scammers have been robbing unsuspecting people all over the country.
Allan Roberts, a realtor from Oregon, was shocked when he found out thousands of dollars were taken from his Chase bank account.
"I'm not going to stand for that," Roberts said, according to NBC affiliate KGW.
"Sorry, but nobody's going to steal $30,000 from me and not account for it."
Each withdrawal was less than $2,000 which he believed allowed it to go through without alerting Chase.
Outside of the $30,000 that was taken from him, an additional $8,000 was transferred and withdrawn from one of his other checking accounts.
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His claim was denied twice by his bank since they couldn't prove that scammers touched his bank account.
"It blows my mind that anybody could look at that and not say, 'Oh, clearly you were hacked and it was gone," he told the outlet.