Real Stories
Real Stories
A few years ago, a WG resident called me (Roger Matthews) and said she had a warning appear on her computer. She called the number on the screen, and gave folks on the other end of the line access to her computer. They got on her computer and did a few "helpful" things, and then asked for some money. THAT WAS WHEN HER RED FLAGS WENT UP! She said she wanted to contact a friend (me), and hung up on them. I came over, and immediately removed the "AnyDesk" software they had installed, which while it was installed, gave them endless access to her computer. Once the software was removed, she was fine. To be sure, I ran a virus scan, but she had stopped the whole thing before she gave them any financial or identify information. So she was good to go, and saved by her "spidey sense" that something was amiss. Good for her!
This was a classic "Microsoft Tech Support Scam" where scary warning messages appear on your screen, and lock your browser so you can't do anything, and provide a "helpful" phone number to call to set things right. These phones are actually usually in scam call center typically in India, and they make MILLIONS of dollars from folks like us.
The right response when a website locks your computer up with a scary message is to just ignore the message (ALWAYS FAKE INFO), and just reboot your computer. You can hold your power button down for 5-10 seconds, which will cause your computer to turn off. The time delay is to prevent you from accidentally turning you computer off by "brushing" the power button. Then simply turn your computer back on. Never call the number on your screen. And locking your screen up the way they do does NOT in any way infect your computer or damage it. It is just there to scare YOU into calling THEM. Don't!
A few years ago, a single lady in WG had a message pop up on her computer from her "Bank". They wanted her to "Confirm" her login information. The site looked official. It had the logo of the bank clear as day. It looked very official. So she filled it out, "confirming" her bank account numbers, her name, address and phone, and her social security number. The MINUTE she clicked send, her "spidey sense" kicked in, red flags went up, and she had a deep anxiety that she had just screwed up. So she called me. YES, her "spidey sense" was spot on. She spent the next several weeks closing her existing bank account, opening a new one, getting all new credit cards and debit cards, and freezing her credit reporting accounts. It was a nightmare and a lesson hard learned.
In a nutshell, scammers are fishing for you financial information, and they are extraordinarily sneaky about it. They can create a web page that looks exactly like your bank. But banks in reality will NEVER ask you to confirm your financial information. The right response would have been to immediately call her bank before she filled out the web form, and confirmed that it was legitimate. Which it was not. Yikes!
This is the most expensive scam I've ever personally been involved in, a half million dollars. And it happened right here in Water Gardens. Tom (since deceased) was a 90 year old retired Boeing engineer. He was contacted with an email that promised him tens of millions of dollars, from a foreign person who was dying, and "wanted the money to go to a good cause". I have seen recent versions of this scam that don't involve foreigners, but take place right here in the US. Here is the text of this scam letter I actually received a few weeks ago:
Hello Sir/Ma'am,
How are you today?
Please forgive the unexpected nature of this message. I write to you from a hospital bed due to my health.
My name is Mrs Santos, a widow and cancer patient from the United States Of America. Since the passing of my beloved husband during the COVID-19 pandemic, I have lived in pain. We had no children, and my health continues to decline, I am urgently seeking someone to lawfully secure my late husband’s legacy before it is too late for me.
My husband and I worked our lives together during our real estate investment and saved up to $25.5 million in a bank. To prevent these funds from being retained by the bank upon my death, I am required to appoint a trustworthy foreign trustee to be legally recognized as beneficiary under my WILL since I do not have any children or relatives to inherit it. This trustee will receive the funds through proper legal procedures, for humanitarian purposes and help the less privileged
After earnest prayers and careful consideration, I chose to contact you in good faith, believing you to be a person of integrity who will honor this responsibility sincerely and lawfully.
I kindly request your urgent response so I may instruct my attorney to initiate the legal documentation and beneficiary transfer. Time is of great importance to me.
To proceed, I respectfully request the following information and don't be afraid your personal information is privately secured.
(1): Full Name
(2): Telephone Number
(3): Residential Address
(4): Occupation
(5): Date of Birth
(6): Copy of Valid ID
My attorney will legalize the process to ensure a lawful transfer of the funds to your bank account. Please know that I place my full trust in you as my chosen partner.
May Almighty God bless you and reward your kindness.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Santos.
A letter like this was the beginning of Tom's saga where he lost his $500,000. He came to my house, and asked if I would FAX two documents for him. Being the helpful type, I said sure. I noticed in glancing that one of them was for $200,000 and the other for $300,000, both going off to a Swiss bank account. None of my business.
Several months later, his neighbor came tome and said, "I think Tom's in trouble can you help him?". It turns out that Tom had fallen for the scam above, and at the behest of a world class con artist, had sent off $500,000 to a Swiss bank account, which instantly vanished, as did the scammers. Tom was later contacted by a "barrister" (attorney) in London, who said he could get part of the money back, but not all of it. This was, too, a SCAM! Tom was instructed to take $40,000 in cash to Amsterdam.
All this sounds unreal, but it really happened. He put $40,000 in a money belt and flew to Amsterdam. The bad guys were right outside the airport, holding up signs with his name on them. But the Amsterdam airport police found his money belt, and said it was illegal to bring in that much cash, and they deported him back to America.
That was when Tom came to me for help. He needed to contact this "barrister" in London, to get him the $40,000. When I saw that the email address for barrister was a hotmail account, my first red flags went up. No attorney is going to use a hotmail account. So I started investigating, and fairly rapidly learned that Tom was a victim of the "Nigerian Prince" scam, and that his money was just gone. And further, he was being scammed again by fake "barrister" claiming falsely that some of the money could be recovered. That would have taken another $40,000 of his money.
I gave Tom a half inch of paper, describing the scam, and telling him not to lose his last $40,000. He was adamant that he still needed to contact the "barrister". But two weeks later he came to me, ruefully, and said, yes he now understood that the whole thing, the initial big scam, and the smaller followon scam were just that, scams. He asked what he could do. I told him that he could report it to the FBI, but that in reality, his money was just irretrievably gone. Very very sad story.
Joan got a call a few years ago. The caller said, "Grandma, this is your grandson, Steve. I got in an accident in Mexico and broke my nose, so I sound funny. But the police say that unless I give them $4,000 for a bond, they will put me in jail for a year. Can you wire me the money right away? Please Grandma?". Well, many many grandparents have fallen for this scam. If you get a call like this, get your "red flags" up. You can ask them a question only they would know, like what is Grandpa's name or what is the name of your dog. Better yet, hang up and call your grandchild directly, and verify what you've heard.
In Joan's case, she doesn't even have a grandson named "Steve", that is her brother :). So she instantly knew it was a scam. She played along for a minute, and then told them she knew it was a scam and hung up on them.
A few weeks later, she got the same call, "Grandma, this is your grandson, Steve, and I need your help". Joan interrupted him and said, hey you just called me a few weeks ago. The guy on the other end said, "Oops, forgot to cross your name off the list, bye", and that was that.
This scamp plays on the heartstrings that all grandparents have with their grandchildren, knowing that grandparents will do anything to help their grandchildren.
A couple in Arizona recently reported to me that they had just lost $800 to scammers pretending to be tech support. I asked them what happened. They said they let the scammers on their PC, and that the scammers had brought up the System Events Viewer and filtered it for critical events. Very scarily, their screen filled with critical events, which the scammers asserted was proof they had viruses, lots of them, and they proceeded to do some useful sounding things (NOT!), and charge them $800. Fortunately for them, they paid by CREDIT CARD.
They had a phone number, so I called the phone number and when they answered (with Indian accents), I asked them to refund the $800. They said no, and hung up. Larry was a retired banker, so he knew more than the average bear. So he contacted the fraud department at the bank. They said if he could produce a) proof of a scam by a computer professional and b) his business card, then they could likely get his money back.
Well, I knew because they represented the System Event Viewer as "proof" of viruses, that it was a scam, because the event viewer simply reports windows status events. NOTHING ever about viruses. But scammers like to use it because it looks scary, and it comes from the users own PC. So I wrote up the scam in a letter, and attached my business card.
The next day, Larry contacts me and reports that the bank had no trouble getting the money back. They called the scammers (in INDIA!) and said to them, "We can do this the easy way or the hard way. The easy way is you write us a check for $800. The hard way is we take you to court, and we will win and the $800 anyway." The scammers immediately wrote the bank a check for $800, and the bank refunded Larry and Barbara's $800.
Moral of the story - Paying by credit card is protected by fraud protections. The bank will go to bat for you. Paying by debit card, gift card, cash, Zelle, etc, etc has no protections at all.
A WG Resident received the following "letter" from the "IRS". It was a scam, trying to obtain his private financial information. Take a look at the first letter, which is what he received, and the following pages, which describe the scam.