A WOMAN who lost a life-changing $13,500 while trying to get a bogus refund from Best Buy has warned of the red flags she failed to notice.
The unlucky lady wakes up every day, haunted by the series of mistakes that emptied her bank account.
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In 2024, the anonymous Washington resident got an email that she thought was from the electronics store chain Best Buy, she told CBS affiliate KIRO.
The email said she had just renewed a $799 subscription to the store’s Geek Squad membership – which is an in-house tech repair service.
She was confused, as she had never used the service before. So, she followed the instructions in the email to get a refund.
After calling the phone number provided, she was connected with someone who said they could help.
All they needed was her bank account information, and then the refund process could start.
What the unsuspecting lady didn’t know is that she was now knee-deep in a mind-boggling scam.
After a while, the victim received a call saying she had accidentally been refunded $14,000, far more than she owed.
The caller’s tone immediately changed, and she was urged to rush to her bank to settle up, or else she could lose her job.
“They know how to get to you,” the heartbroken lady said.
The scammer coached his victim well, convincing her that she couldn’t write a check or ask anyone at her bank for help.
Instead, she had to swiftly and silently use the kiosk at her bank to convert $13,500 of cash into Bitcoin.
The horrified lady knew something was wrong but acted against her instincts because the caller was threatening her with legal action.
Eventually, she dropped off the cash and waited to settle the money in her account. The day after, she realized she was never getting it back.
Cybersecurity expert Dave Henderson, the CEO of CyberStreams, warned that as soon as cash or Bitcoin is given away to scammers, it’s nearly impossible to get back.
Expert Advice: How to protect yourself from fraud
Craig Costigan, the CEO of fraud experts NICE Actimize gave the following tips to readers of The U.S. Sun on how to stay safe from fraudsters.
- As the saying goes, trust but verify. Always question your text and email communications. It may not be from who you think it is. Look for giveaways that it is a scam email. If your bank contacts you about a fraud via a text or email, call the number on the back of your credit or debit card to contact the fraud department directly – much safer than giving data to an impersonator.
- Protect your personal identifying information such as social security cards, your blank checks and other IDs.
- Always be vigilant. Even the safest and most careful among us have encountered fraudsters – we survived
because we reported the activity immediately to our providers, changed our passwords and checked our credit reports for unusual activity. - If you are not applying for credit, you might also consider placing a freeze on your credit reports, such as Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, so fraudsters can’t open accounts in your name. You can easily unfreeze your credit when you want to open a new account.
“Whether you hand somebody $100 in cash and then they walk away, or you transfer it as Bitcoin, or you get a gift card, or you do a wire transfer, when you initiate that, you have been defrauded,” he told the outlet.
Henderson advised consumers to use the SLAM method to combat the billions of dollars lost to fraud every year.
The S in SLAM stands for Sender, which is a reminder to analyze exactly where the message is coming from.
A quick look at the email address could show typos or broken URLs that don’t match a legitimate business.
The L stands for Link. Consumers should never open links in stray emails until they’ve determined that the source is recognizable.
A stands for Attachment. Similar to links, attachments on emails shouldn’t be mindlessly opened or interacted with.
Finally, M stands for Message. Fully read the email to see if the content makes sense.
In the case of the victim in Washington, she could have determined that she had never had a Geek Squad membership and contacted Best Buy directly.
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