(WSPA) – Nowadays, it seems like the minute we warn you about one scam, another pops up. So our aim at 7NEWS Here to Help is to keep you informed of new ploys to steal your money.
Here’s a deeper look at a new wave of digital deception.
GOOGLE SEARCH GONE WRONG
When Mary Thomas’ Spartanburg neighborhood got new fiber optic internet installed from a company called Lumos, she said the condition in which they left her yard had her searching online for a complaint form.
“Went on the website, found the address for the company, everything was there, and I called the number and someone answered the phone and explained what had happened and they were like, ‘Ms. Thomas, we’re so sorry this happened to you, but we can get a technician out there before the end of the week,'” explained Thomas.
But that Google search had turned up a scam site impersonating Lumos and the bogus “representative” got her to download what they claimed was a complaint form.
“Once they got inside my computer, I started noticing Amazon cards coming from text messages on my phone. At first, I thought, ‘Well OK, they’re giving me a gift card cause I’m coming over as a customer,'” she said.
It didn’t take long, though, for Thomas to realize those gift card notices were coming from her own account, a total of roughly $1,000 of her own money. She knew then that download had allowed the scammers to hack her computer.
And when Thomas called the scammer out on it, she said he responded with a threat.
“He said you won’t get your computer back until you give us the access to these cards,” said Thomas.
That fear is a powerful force for scammers.
CRYPTOCURRENCY DANGER
Terri Hendrix with Carolina Foothills Federal Credit Union said one of their members recently lost hundreds of thousands of dollars when a caller, claiming to be with the government, scared them into believing they were in trouble. So much so, they followed instructions to transfer all of their funds into a cryptocurrency account.
“And unfortunately, when she sent the cryptocurrency, you cannot get the money back,” Hendrix explained. “When it’s gone, it’s gone. What you don’t know is that behind the scenes there is coding inside that program or portal that locks you out from those funds. So once you deposit those funds then no one can get them out but the scammers and then they’re anonymous so there’s no way to track them down.”
MORE YOUNG PEOPLE ARE TARGETED
While older adults are more likely to suffer big losses from scams, a recent Federal Trade Commission report found people ages 20 to 29 reported losing money more often than people 70 and older.
We sat down with some USC Upstate students to learn what they’ve been seeing.
Zhane Johnson, who is studying information technology, said he’s constantly getting messages on social media offering investment opportunities, which he knows are a type of scam called “rug pull.”
“What a rug pull is, they get as many people to invest into a cryptocurrency as possible and then as soon as it reaches its peak, the initial investors, people who run a pyramid scheme, pull out all their stock and close the currency down,” said Johnson.
Kimberly Dovi has had to dodge scam emails claiming to be from the school chancellor urging her to call the number. She said the email said something like: “This is urgent, Dr. Harris.”
“And I was like, ‘That’s kind of weird.’ So I looked at the sender where it goes and I clicked on that and I saw it was from a Gmail and I was like, ‘I know that’s not legitimate because all of ours is from an edu platform,'” said Dovi, who sent the email to the IT department to report it as scam.
Cordelia Fingar, who has student loans, said she nearly fell victim to a debt collection scam.
“They did know my name, but they needed to collect additional information from me, and they made it seem like it was urgent,” she explained. Since she hadn’t heard of the scam before, she admitted, it caught her off guard.
Still, she thought better of it when they couldn’t tell her exactly how much she owed and realized it was a scam.
Those USC Upstate students admit, since their generation is online more often than older generations, it’s no wonder they are bombarded with scams.
Still, someone like Thomas, who has amassed more wealth over time could have lost big.
“I knew something was not right,” she told 7NEWS, but she is worried not everyone would.
She acted fast to shut down and scrub her computer.
In a statement, Lumos Director of Communications Casey Angel said “Our team has connected with the homeowner and worked cooperatively to resolve her concerns and ensure a seamless restoration. We are not aware of and have not been able to independently verify any false websites.”
After getting the Amazon charges reversed, Thomas wants to pay it forward.
“If they get access to your cell phone, your computer, all your information is there. Once they had access to my information they just started trying to buy up whatever they could,” she warned.
That’s why two-step authentication on all of your financial, health, and shopping accounts is so crucial.
Without those texts to her phone, she never would have realized the hackers had gained access to her account.
