Financial Advice Columnist falls for $50K scam

[Music Lover]

So before reading this story you would have been inclined to give a FBI agent a shoe box full of money?

I wouldn't trust the FBI or CIA on anything.

 

[GenXguy]

So before reading this story you would have been inclined to give a FBI agent a shoe box full of money?

That wasn't an FBI agent. Surely that's not the only detail you read from the article. And I didn't say "I", but rather "you". I've been reading about these scams for years, so I am pretty hardened against scams in general. But I still like to read the details when people get scammed. I noted earlier in the thread that someone tried to scam me recently, but I was on to it quickly.

 

[Nash]

Anyone that'll prepare a shoebox stuffed with cash for the CIA/FBI is orders of magnitude more stupid than the typical clueless idiot walking the earth.

Seems impossible to be that dumb, but proven wrong.

 

[CaptTom]

It sounds like a very targeted scam. They collected information on a public figure and carefully crafted a story line she might fall for. I doubt anyone will go to that much trouble to scam me. I like to think I wouldn't fall for that particular con, but these people are crafty, and know how to prey on human weaknesses.

I called a number listed on the bank's website, i.e. I placed the call to the bank. ... I would have to speculate, and my speculation does not reflect favorably on the bank rep who transferred me to the alleged repair service.

Wow. If a scammer can get a job in a legitimate bank's call center, they can do a lot of damage!

If I had a bank do that, first I'd call the local branch manager and report the scammer in their employ. Next I'd probably transfer all my accounts to another bank. That's just way beyond tolerable.

 

[Rianne]

Reading the OPs post I realized all I have to do is google myself. The names of my family, birthdays, our past addresses over 20 years, my current address, and my DH resume for the last 25 years are all there for the world to see for free! Oh, and the ages of my siblings are there too.
Going further, my sibling's addresses and their employment and past employment, addresses, and names of their children there as well. All this information is free.
Anyone can use this information to scam us. As far as the social security number, I'm guessing pretty easy to find. Get used to it. Privacy is a thing of the past.

 

[jazz4cash]

If you read it, you'll conclude anything but.

I read it a few times and it still does not add up. I think the questions will continue but maybe it helps some folks keep their guard up.

 

[mystang52]

I thought maybe it was made up.

Interesting follow-up to the subject article. I am in no way ‘making fun’ of the victim but I am incredulous that it could happen the way she described. I am sure I could be scammed…..but NOT like that!

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/scam-tips-columnist-50k/

With an attempt at light humor, I think all of us (except jazz4cash) who have commented, have been "scammed." I read the 2 original linked articles, and now question whether it was just made up. Author is a financial columnist, so maybe she wrote this article to warn others, but the story is pure fiction. I couldn't read that last Washington Post article as it's behind paywall. So, as they say, "I call BS."

 

[Fermion]

With an attempt at light humor, I think all of us (except jazz4cash) who have commented, have been "scammed." I read the 2 original linked articles, and now question whether it was just made up. Author is a financial columnist, so maybe she wrote this article to warn others, but the story is pure fiction. I couldn't read that last Washington Post article as it's behind paywall. So, as they say, "I call BS."

That seems too easy to check (police reports etc.) that another journalist would call her out?

 

[MarieIG]

It sounds like a very targeted scam. They collected information on a public figure and carefully crafted a story line she might fall for. I doubt anyone will go to that much trouble to scam me. I like to think I wouldn't fall for that particular con, but these people are crafty, and know how to prey on human weaknesses.



Wow. If a scammer can get a job in a legitimate bank's call center, they can do a lot of damage!

If I had a bank do that, first I'd call the local branch manager and report the scammer in their employ. Next I'd probably transfer all my accounts to another bank. That's just way beyond tolerable.

This is going back a number of years. In hindsight, I would have handled the episode differently.

 

[HGTVFanatic]

My husband wants to pick up a scam call and instead of hello say, it’s done but there’s blood everywhere. ?

 

[Amethyst]

I feel for her - she was trying to balance so many life factors at once, and so accustomed to solving problems on the fly, that she simply missed some (to others) simple cues. In essence, it was a domain knowledge issue. She knows lots about finances, but she's not too informed about her government. CIA, indeed.

This is not to make fun of this person. I truly feel sorry for her. It is to show (a) that anyone, if not careful, can fall for a scam, and (b) the type of scam that was used. Someone claiming to be from the CIA convinced her to hand over $50K in cash in a shoe box.

A summary of the situation:

https://news.yahoo.com/financial-journalist-hands-50k-cash-203808974.html

The source (and longer, but interesting) article, written by the columnist:

https://www.thecut.com/article/amazon-scam-call-ftc-arrest-warrants.html

 

[Sunset]

My husband wants to pick up a scam call and instead of hello say, it’s done but there’s blood everywhere. ?

In the age before scammers, at a new house, I got repeated calls asking for Mr XXX
First few times I told them Mr XXX doesn't live here/ you have a wrong number.

Then a few days later I'd get another call for Mr XXX.

Finally they called, and I said Mr XXX couldn't come to the phone as I had just killed him and rolled him up in the carpet upstairs, and now we need to take the body out of the house.

They stopped calling

I imagine their thinking was:
This is a nutcase or this is a psycho murderer, either way they no longer wanted contact.

 

[aja8888]

Here's a copy of a text I got from a close friend yesterday:

I was almost scammed. "Bank of America's" fraud department called me to warn me of fraudulent activity.

They informed me that someone tried to charge my Zelle account.
They asked if me or someone authorized to use my card had intended to send Joan Gonzales $1000.11 and $498.63.

I said no.
They reassured me that they caught the Transaction and put it on hold.
Then they asked me to take down the "transaction hold code."

They then gave me the number to Zelle because Zelle would have to terminate the transaction for good.

When I called that number they answered the phone "Zelle Fraud Prevention" . How can I help you.

I told the guy the situation and he reassured me that he could help. He asked me for the code that B of A gave me.

He then began to give me instructions to log onto my Zelle account, add their Fraud Department as a recognized user so that I could send them a code and they could block the fraudulent transactions.

That was when my little yellow fraud flag turned into a giant Red Flag.
I said I wasn't comfortable with this.

He reassured me that this was the only way to stop the frauds that had "ghosted" my phone.
He reminded me that I called him so how could he be frauding me?

I said I called you because I received a call from "BofA" and they gave me your number. I said I’m going to call B of A back and confirm that they called me.

He said that was a good idea, but I should know that BofA can not cancel the pending transaction only Zelle can because Zelle is a third party. So I will have to call back to Zelle otherwise the transaction will be reprocessed tomorrow.

I said okay.

I got out my BofA credit card and called BofA (not the number that originally called me from BofA). The agent looked through the system. There have been no charges from Zelle. Furthermore no one from BofA has called me today.

Another scammer trying to hack through a person's Zelle account.

 

[jollystomper]

My husband wants to pick up a scam call and instead of hello say, it’s done but there’s blood everywhere. ?

When I worked at Megacorp, we would sometimes get scam calls on our conference room phone. If there was a meeting going on, and a particular group of us (including me) were there, we would generally respond with something like that, or even "act out" a scenario (like banging on the table and someone screaming in pain).

We once did this when our executive was in town. She thought it was hilarious, and after that always refereed to our department as the "having too much fun group".

 

[thod]

My wife has gotten into the habit of always answering 'Unknown' callers with "Ahoy" instead of "hello". It seems to throw them off their scripts and they end up just hanging up without saying anything more often than not.

FYI: "Ahoy" is what Alexander Graham Bell wanted as the answer protocol. But "Hello" is what Edison wanted instead.

 

[Trailwalker]

After hiring a private guide to show us around Beijing about twenty years ago, I received an email from his email account, months later, asking for a not terribly large amount of money. The email explained that he had been arrested and jailed for activities related to showing us around. He needed money to hire a lawyer. At the time, I put it off as a scam--either his or someone who had hacked into his account. But I always wondered in the back of my mind if maybe his story was true. Scammers prey on predicted psychological responses.

 

[GenXguy]

My wife has gotten into the habit of always answering 'Unknown' callers with "Ahoy" instead of "hello". It seems to throw them off their scripts and they end up just hanging up without saying anything more often than not.

FYI: "Ahoy" is what Alexander Graham Bell wanted as the answer protocol. But "Hello" is what Edison wanted instead.

I wonder if Alexader Graham Bell answered "ahoy" when he got his first call, when he was offered an extension on his car warranty.

 

[sengsational]

I don't get it. How can anyone fall for that? She must be the most naive person ever. WOW!

I read it a few times and it still does not add up. I think the questions will continue but maybe it helps some folks keep their guard up.

These scammers have a particular skill, and these scammers were good at it. They probably went through hundreds if not thousands of targets before finding one that was in the right state of mind to be carried along. It doesn't happen all at once; it's a step-wise progression. If you want to watch someone who does it for a living, in front of cameras (Derren Brown), search for his name and "the push", "the heist", and "sacrifice" (there are more too). He selects from unsuspecting people (under a ruse), then shepherds one or more of those people to to push someone off a roof (to their death), or to rob a bank, or to take a bullet for a despised "outsider" person. An interesting exploration of how people can be manipulated.


It was the following quote that got me thinking about Brown's work, and how similar it is to what the scammers did in this case. Similar to "coerced confessions".

It was my brother, the lawyer, who pointed out that what I had experienced sounded a lot like a coerced confession. “I read enough transcripts of bad interrogations in law school to understand that anyone can be convinced that they have a very narrow set of terrible options,” he said. When I posed this theory to Saul Kassin, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who studies coerced confessions, he agreed. “If someone is trying to get you to be compliant, they do it incrementally, in a series of small steps that take you farther and farther from what you know to be true,” he said. “It’s not about breaking the will. They were altering the sense of reality.” And when you haven’t done anything wrong, the risk of cooperating feels minimal, he added. An innocent person thinks everything will get sorted out. It also mattered that I was kept on the phone for so long. People start to break down cognitively after a few hours of interrogation. “At that point, they’re not thinking straight. They feel the need to put an end to the situation at all costs,” Kassin said.

 

[jazz4cash]

Yeah, ahem. Not comparable in the least IMO. Illusionist Derren Brown’s video self describes as employing “an army of actors”. I guess it’s good Mr Brown is an entertainer. $50k wouldn’t begin to cover his expenses.

 

[jazz4cash]

I was traveling with a buddy last year and he got a call from “Amazon”. I saw his demeanor tank when they told him his account had been hacked. I started making gestures to hang up but he ignored me at first. I practically yelled at him to call them back and he reluctantly hung up. Here’s the thing….he was on meds causing him to have mood swings. Plus, he wrecked his car the day before and we were stuck in the middle of no where trying to figure things out. He was super vulnerable so no telling what would’ve happened if I wasn’t there. He checked his account and all was OK.

 

[sengsational]

Yeah, ahem. Not comparable in the least IMO. Illusionist Derren Brown’s video self describes as employing “an army of actors”. I guess it’s good Mr Brown is an entertainer. $50k wouldn’t begin to cover his expenses.

Perhaps I wasn't clear. The commonality, and the thing I find interesting is how people can be manipulated. Brown manipulates people with an army of actors and hidden cameras and the scammers manipulate people on the phone. Both get people to behave in ways we have a hard time understanding. I find the application of that skill fascinating.

 

[GenXguy]

I was traveling with a buddy last year and he got a call from “Amazon”. I saw his demeanor tank when they told him his account had been hacked. I started making gestures to hang up but he ignored me at first. I practically yelled at him to call them back and he reluctantly hung up. Here’s the thing….he was on meds causing him to have mood swings. Plus, he wrecked his car the day before and we were stuck in the middle of no where trying to figure things out. He was super vulnerable so no telling what would’ve happened if I wasn’t there. He checked his account and all was OK.

Good thing he didn't get scammed. And if you get a scam call from Amazon in the future, you will be less likely to get scammed also.

 

[Gumby]

A good rule to follow is that you should be the one initiating any contact. So if someone calls me to discuss a problem with my credit card, I hang up and call the number printed on the back of the card or go online to see. If they send me an email with a link to click to straighten out my billing problem, I delete the email and log on to the bank's website in my normal fashion. If my local bank purportedly calls me, I'll just walk on over and talk to them face to face.

And if the FBI is ever going to arrest me, I'm pretty sure they'll just show up and do it, not call me first. I'm also pretty sure that they do not ever need my assistance.

 

[flyingaway]

She might just need some eye-attracting stories to write for her column.

 

[mystang52]

She can edit out the specific details, but I'd sure like to see proof of that $50,000 withdrawal. I saw one commentator mention that if this story is true, then her career giving financial advice is probably over. And if it's not true (which I think is the case) then her career as a financial columnist is also likely over.