I thought it would never happen to me. But it did. I got scammed. Let me take a break from writing about frolicking in Florence to tell you about it. Here’s how it happened…
I received an email, supposedly from PayPal, advising me of a potentially fraudulent purchase recently charged to my account. Highly suspicious, eh?
I thought so, too. I wanted to check to be sure, though, so I logged into my PayPal account. Sure enough, my PayPal transaction history showed the purchase of a rather expensive drone that I hadn’t purchased.
I didn’t trust the email, but I trusted PayPal, so I called the phone number listed on the notice in my PayPal transactions record.
“Yes, sir, we will refund your money,” the PayPal guy said. “I’ll transfer you to the department that handles refunds.”
The First Red Flag
The guy in the Refund Department told me the quickest, easiest way for PayPal to refund my money would be by bank-to-bank transfer. To do so would require PayPal to access my computer and personal bank account.
That was the first red flag, but I thought to myself, “Well, if this is how PayPal does it… OK.” I approved the installation of two programs on my computer to carry out the transfer. Now the PayPal guy had access to my computer and to my open on-line checking account. Except he wasn’t a PayPal guy.
By this time, red flags were going off left and right, but I rationalized that I had initiated the connection with PayPal directly from my PayPal account. I had thought PayPal had a stellar reputation. The transaction should be legit.
“To do the transfer,” he said, “you, (meaning me), have to be the one to type in the refund amount. PayPal doesn’t allow me to enter dollar amounts.”
The fraudster made subtle comments like that one, designed to reassure a suspicious customer that he was a legitimate PayPal employee. He must have gone through this routine hundreds of times.
Not This Guy’s First Rodeo
I entered in the dollar amount, but there was an error. “Maybe a formatting error,” he said. “Try it without the decimal point.” Another error. The program rejected the number before I could finish typing it in.
He said, “Try it without the dollar sign.” I did, but as I entered the amount, all of a sudden the decimal point moved. The program accepted it in a flash. A bigger number – let’s say $3,000 – had been accepted.
“Oh no!” he said. $3,000 from PayPal has been deposited into your checking account!”
Sure enough – my on-line checking account showed the $3,000 deposit.
What I didn’t know was that while keeping me busy entering dollar amounts, the fraudster had moved $3,000 from my savings account to my checking account, thereby showing the deposit and resulting balance. I have to admit, this guy had skills.
More Red Flags…
By this time I was on friendly terms with the guy who I thought was trying to get me my refund from PayPal. He told me that if this mistake couldn’t be corrected fairly quickly, he’d be in big trouble. He could lose his job over this.
“Is there a branch of your bank near you?” He asked. “Would it be possible for you to go make a wire transfer to return the money to PayPal, less expenses for your trouble, of course?” I agreed to do it.
He gave me wiring instructions, and asked me to not mention PayPal or any business involvement because “the IRS taxes business-related wires heavily. He’d be personally liable for that money.”
By this time, red flags were flying around everywhere, but I rationalized my way around them every time.
I have no history of wiring cash, so bank employees were suspicious. They asked probing questions, trying to save me from myself. But, unfortunately, I managed to answer them to their satisfaction and they wired the money.
I could see that the money had left my checking account, but the fraudster said it hadn’t showed up on his end. We agreed to wait until the next day. “If the wire didn’t go through,” he said,” the money would go back into my checking account after 24 hours.” He asked me to wire a smaller amount to a different destination to see if that solved the problem. I agreed.
Oh No…
This time at the bank, they KNEW I was being had. The bank manager met with me, and asked me to tell him in detail why I wanted to wire this money. I decided to tell him the whole story.
As I told him, it became more and more obvious to both of us that I’d been played like a Stradivarius. A cold shiver came over me. I started to get a little nauseous. It was truly a miserable feeling.
A million thoughts went through my mind. Can I get the money back? This guy was a pro. What other personal information of mine has he gotten into? I have a lot of work to do in a short time – close accounts, open new ones, change payment methods, wipe my computer, file a police report…
It’s been a month. No money back. No results from a police investigation. Lots of new accounts and passwords. A PayPal person surprised me by confirming that the initial email did, in fact, come from PayPal. He said there must have been an inside person at PayPal working with the scammer. He probably wasn’t supposed to have said that.
Everyone is on alert for scammers these days, including me. But I had certainly never heard of this one. And I vastly underestimated the skills of the scammer.
Life goes on. But getting scammed does a number on you. It messes up your head. I’m still amazed that I didn’t heed any of those now-obvious red flags. Red flags are of no use if they aren’t acted on. I guess that’s the lesson.
To be continued…. back in Florence.
