The Word - Vol 61

Scammed

I’ve never been accused of being the sharpest knife in the drawer, but never the dullest either. However, an event that happened recently has me wondering. I’ve heard stories of the elderly being scammed out of their life savings by crooks and con artists on the internet, but I never thought it would almost happen to me. I think I was only one or two clicks away from having my bank account emptied! The crazy thing was, they didn’t come looking for me, I walked right into their trap.

It all started with my iMac computer. For quite a while now, it’s been running very slowly. My daughter and son-in-law both said it was crazy slow and tried a couple of times to speed it up for me.  They finally thought that I must have an app or some kind of program running in the background that was slowing things down. I guess I should have taken it to Apple and had the Genius Bar people have a look at it, but no, I thought I’d just call the Apple Helpline, and maybe they could help me over the phone. I had called for support in the past and it was always fast, and whatever problem I had was easily solved. They were very good at walking me through the steps and getting it fixed.

I consulted Google for the Apple support helpline and gave them a call. The call was answered and identified as Apple, and away we went. The person on the other end of the line listened to my problem and said that it sounded like I hadn’t completed the setup of my computer with Apple. I had seen a message about that on my computer, and when I clicked on it, it wanted me to complete the setup by signing in for the Apple Wallet. Apple Wallet is an app that allows you to pay for things using your iPhone so you don’t have to use your debit or credit card. I didn’t have any use for something like that so I passed on it. But the message was always there on my computer, so I just decided to ignore it.

So, what he said seemed to make sense, as I had seen the message that I hadn’t completed the setup, and at this point, I thought I was talking to an Apple employee! But as it turned out, I wasn’t! I started answering questions, and clicking on this and clicking on that. Every so often I would ask the guy on the other end of the line, why would I have to do that? He would answer, “This is the only way you’re going to speed up your computer!”  Ok, I thought if Apple said that’s what needed to be done, I would click away.

It got to a point where he had me filling out a form that included my name, address, phone number, and debit card number! He asked if it was a Canadian debit card or an American debit card.  I said, “Canadian.” He then asked if I had an American debit card. I said I did. We have an American account in the U.S. left over from a time we owned a house in Arizona. We decided to leave some money in the account for any travel expenses or shopping we would do in the U.S. 

I asked why he would want a U.S. debit account, and again he said it was all part of the setup procedure, and no information was going to be going anywhere. It was a setup alright, and I was the one who was being set up! As I was filling out yet another form, this one for some kind of money transfer app, again I was asked for my name, address, etc. but this time it wanted a photo of my Passport or Driver’s License! That was too much. I snapped! 

I told him I wasn’t comfortable giving anyone a photo of my Passport or my driver’s license and didn’t know what that had to do with Apple and the speed of my computer. He insisted that it was all part of the process and none of the information would be used, it would just be kept with Apple and was needed to complete the signup.

Nope, not going to do it. I told him I had already given him more information that I was comfortable with, and I was going to live with a slow computer! He tried to keep me on the line, but I was done. I hung up.  

Then it hit me! How much information had I given him? How damaging was it? Did he already have access to my bank account and drain all the funds? I was a little panicky and felt a whole lot stupid at this point.  

A couple of phone calls to the banks, and a quick check online with the accounts indicated that nothing had been taken. Canceling the debit card and a change of passwords made me feel a little better. I felt better, but still felt big-time stupid.

It was a lesson learned, for sure. And I throw this little story out there, to show you how easy it is to be duped. Or how easy it was for me to be duped!  

To think, I was just a couple of clicks away from being another online victim. Don’t let it be you!

Till next week...
Wayne

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