A DECEPTIVE pop-up led a couple down a digital scam nightmare that cost them $7,500 to a hacker after being convinced he was a criminal.
Kenneth Mandle from Nixa, Missouri, was casually scrolling on his iPad when the scam pop-up appeared and included a phone number to urgently call.
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“It seemed so real,” said Kenneth Mandle told KYTV in Springfield.
“I’m out a good sum of money that I can’t recover.”
Mandle called the number that was provided – the hacker answered and convinced him they were with Apple support.
He said the hackers, “Gave me a badge number.”
read more on gift card scams
And then told him, “I’m from Apple Fraud support.”
ACCUSED OF HORRENDOUS CRIME
The hacker immediately freaked Mandle out by saying they discovered a charge for downloading illegal images of children on a website from China.
This caused Mandle to panic and become afraid that he was in trouble with the law.
The fear tactic allowed the hackers to mess with Mandle.
“They have downloaded a $15,000 charge for a child porn site out of China,” Mandle said.
“That immediately got my attention,” said Mandle.
“I could get in a lot of trouble. That’s what still sucked me in.”
The hacker used deception to convince Mandle they were trying to help.
They said they were going to activate fraud alerts and attempt to get his credit card shut off by adding more charges to it.
Mandle said the hacker told him, “We are going to put a fraud alert on all your accounts and send it to the credit bureaus.”
“We need to put some more charges on your credit card to offset the $15,000.
“When all these charges come through, your credit card company will probably pause everything.”
GIFT CARD SCAM
The charges the hackers insisted on adding to his credit card were in the form of gift cards.
It is a red flag if anyone tells you to buy gift cards to help a scam.
The hacker told Mandle he needed to purchase gift cards for Apple and Nordstrom because you can put large amounts on them.
Mandle followed the hacker’s instructions, bought the gift cards, and then gave the codes to the hacker.
MONEY GONE FOREVER
His wife, Diana, intervened and immediately caught on that it was a scam after Mandle gave the gift card numbers.
She took the phone from Mandle and told the scammers they were done with the nonsense.
Top tips on avoiding scams from a bank
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam:
- Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
- Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
But the scammer hung up and never spoke to them again – plus the money was gone forever.
“You are not going to talk to him because this is a scam. He immediately hung up,” Diana told KYTV.
“We never heard another thing from him for the rest of the day or at all.”
Mandle was informed he would not be able to get refunded the money because he authorized the charges.
He tried working with the Federal Trade Commission, the Nixa Police Department, his insurance company, and the bank but had no luck in getting his money back.
A special agent with the FBI, Jamie, warned it is likely people will never get their money back after gift card scams.
“Fraudsters use many schemes to scam people out of their hard-earned money,” Jamie said.
“One of those scams is through the purchase of gift cards.
“If someone asks you to purchase gift cards and then provide the redemption codes to them, it is likely a scam.
“The fraudsters use those funds to purchase goods and services, which may or may not be legitimate and you will likely never get reimbursed for those gift cards.”
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