Suffice to say it involved sending an Amazon gift card to someone I didn't know, at the request of a good friend who said she was having difficulty accessing her Amazon account -- at least, I *thought* it was my friend. (I feel slightly better that the transaction went through Amazon, and I didn't give any financial details to anyone else.)
The initial email came from her actual email account (I later noticed that subsequent emails came from a Hotmail account -- which she doesn't have). She's been dealing with some health issues recently, and I've been feeling guilty that I hadn't messaged her in a while. It's been a busy day/week/month, I was tired and distracted, and I guess my happiness at hearing from her blinded me to all the huge waving red flags that look pretty damned obvious in retrospect. (Plus, it's a full moon tomorrow night!!)
I realized almost immediately that I had just made a BIG mistake. I felt sick. It wasn't a huge-huge amount of money, but it wasn't insignificant either. Very fortunately, I was able to call my bank and have the transaction cancelled almost immediately.
Unfortunately, that meant they also had to cancel my credit card, period. I should be getting a new one in 7-10 business days. In the meantime, I'm without a credit card, and when I get the new one, I need to contact ALL the companies that take regular payments/subscriptions from the old one and give them the new number.
Because the initial email came from my friend's actual email account, I was leery of emailing her to warn her. So I called her. We couldn't talk long because she was waiting for her service provider to call her back (while juggling calls from all the other people they had emailed too). Whoever did this managed to wipe out ALL her contacts, including ALL her business contacts, going back years & years. (She's a freelancer, too!) She's hoping they will be able to retrieve those for her.
As a precaution (and with a little help from my sister's techno-expert partner), I also changed my email passwords. (I also changed my Amazon password for good measure.) He told me I'm certainly not the first (nor the last) person to be taken in by a scammer, and that these guys are getting very, very good, especially now with the help of ChatGPT and other AI tools. :(
My sister (who has worked in financial services for nearly 40 years -- and was herself -- as she reminded me -- the victim of a scam at work a few years back) also advised me to check my credit bureau ratings on TransUnion and Equifax. She said it's probably overkill, but better to be safe...
What a mess. :(
Needless to say, I am beat. And feeling like a complete idiot. :p (Learn from my mistakes!)
You can find more of this week's #MicroblogMondays posts here.
Oh, no, Loribeth, that's so scary! I hope your prompt call to your bank did manage to cancel the whole transaction. But I'm confused—did the scammer "read" like her? This is what scares me the most. As a linguist, I've always thought I'd be able to sense that something is off in the discourse of a friend or family member, in the event that the "help, send money" bit somehow went through my mental barriers. But scammers are getting so sophisticated that I'm beginning to doubt I'd be able to detect spurious discourses...
ReplyDeleteActually, no, and that was one of the red flags. She's a professional writer and there were some errors that, in retrospect, should have tipped me (another writer!) off -- not really glaring errors, but not ones she would likely have made either. But like I said, I was tired & distracted. They obviously caught me at a good time (for them!).
DeleteOh, I'm really sorry! I'm also always worried that I'll fall victim to a scam. I'm so glad you remembered quickly, and could contact the bank and cancel. All sorts of people are caught by the scammers - you are not alone! Sending hugs. And thanks for making me think about changing all my passwords too. I should do that.
ReplyDeleteI didn't change them ALL, but definitely the ones most relevant to this incident!
DeleteMy friend is not on social media at all, is a savvy journalist and very cautious about these things... I've been comforting myself with the thought that if this can happen to her, it can happen to any of us!
DeleteYou were tired and distracted and wanted to help a friend. You will now better next time to maybe call her, and from what I read, you are the kind person who will help friends in the future too. Just with extra check.
ReplyDeleteOh, dear. They are so good at getting even the vigilant to fall for their tricks. Thank you for sharing this form of scam so we can all be on alert. Thankful you were able to right things for you!
ReplyDelete