Yesterday, I got sucked into a scam. It started when a message popped up on my phone from “apple support” and said that my apple ID had been compromised. Charges. I stupidly called the number.
I spent more than an hour on the phone with an apple support guy who called himself James Williams, said his IOS badge # was 16887, and he walked me through my phone and showed me the charges – more than 12K was one of them, then a second for $4K. I freaked. That was my first mistake, operating from fear.
He asked where I banked, I told him and he said he would put me in touch with the bank’s fraud investigator so my account could be secured. The man called himself Michael Schmidt. Phone #:202-417-6835. He was slick, believable, I fell for it. He said to secure my account, I needed to wire $ in my account to the address he would give me and speak to no one about it. His agency believed that someone in the bank was the person who had hacked my account.
So I stupidly wired $6100 to a bank in Pittsburgh, PA. Michael, of course, had advised me not to tell anyone about this because I was doing this for the government & he didn’t want anyone to know they were onto the hackers. Cosmic joke here on me. THEY were the hackers. He called today, ole Michael did, and said the $ would be wired back to my bank account today or by Tuesday (memorial day weekend, you know). By this time, something inside me was freaking out – and so did Rob. So I called the local police and the bank and reported the scam.
I’d also gotten an email from the Federal Trade Commission, signed by Mark Meador,the actual commissioner of the FTC. It wasn’t until later, though, that I noticed the number given for him was the same one Michael Schmidt had given me: 202-417-6835. The cop photographed it, took down all the details I gave him, and said he would write it up and turn it over to their detective department. He also noted that anything could be faked these days, even a letter from the FTC.
The bank placed a block on our account, advised me to head to their branch that was open on Saturdays, and open a new account. They will dispute the wire with the bank I stupidly wired the $ to- an actual bank, surprise, surprise – so we’ll see.
I later realized that the number fake James from apple support had given me was also the same one ole Michael had used to phone me. The beneficiary to whom I wired the $ was: Jennyfer Maria Da Silva Fernandez Costa of 2100 Massachusetts Avenue, Apt 1 C, Troy NY. The address exists, I don’t know about Jennyfer. She’s probably as fake as Michael.
So if a message from Apple pops up on your phone, research it. I didn’t. I freaked. Fear drove took me instead. So if you experience something like this, call the cops and your bank first. Don’t allow fear to push you to do something this stupid.
