I was scammed today...and I feel so dumb

[Jorg]

As the title says...I was scammed, seriously, Im an electronic engineer, I was always suspicious and didn't trust almost anything...

In the afternoon I received a call from my bank, as I had saved the number in my phone I answered. They said they were calling from Fraud department, someone tried to transfer a lot of money and tried to buy some computer equipment, they had the location, IP, name adn that it was made from an Iphone 11. We needed to block my accounts and my passwords. While that I was thinking on the back of my mind, DONT GIVE ANY PASSWORD, NOT PIN NUMBERS.

Anyway, it was purely social engineering, they made me change my bank password by one "the bank sent to my mail"...as I was feeling anxious and angry because someone tried to scam me my focus probably faded.

Anyway, in that bank I had only like $5...but the guy on the call said to me that as a precaution they needed to alert other banks I could have. So I felt for that, I never gave them any password but I did gave them my number account because I tought it was something normal, I mean, I give that number to my brother or someone else so they can transfer money to my account if needed, but never a password, because it is not needed.

Well, with the account number and I don't now how, the stole my money from that bank, around $200 I had there. I still can't figure how they did it, when I transfer money from that bank I need to write a random series of numbers asked by the bank, while looking to a plastic card with a series of rows and columns, I didn't give any of that, I never gave them the other bank password.

Anyway, I went in person to the 2nd bank (the one I had the $200) to ask if everything was good. The cashier was not sure, he said he never heard of the transactions name before...I then went to the other bank, the one from where the call was made. And well...they cashier told me I was scammed.

While I was angry, sad, anxious, stressed, I didn't worried about my own money, but my account was in someway linked to the one of my mother where she had a lot of money saved since her retirement. I started panicking but thank God that was in some weird saving form I couldnt access and the scammer could not see, they could only see like a couple of dollars.

Well, the protocol was activated, the bank froze my account, my card and I will we receiving a new one soon. Tomorrow I will go to the other bank to ask for a cancelation of my current accounts for new ones...I mean there is only a couple of dollars left there...

I thought the phone number was legit so that's why answered, but apparently, there is an app or software than allows you to mask the fake number under the legit one. People who make that kind of software deserve to be grilled alive...

Is like when things started to go good in my life...well, not so fast, here let me kick you down because you look too happy. I am unemployed, for months I have being looking for a job. Yesterday I was given a diploma from the College of engineers and I0m now able to work in engineering. Then today I had a job interview that went very well, great place to work and a great salary...

Life would be like: "You look to damn happy, here take this scam to level things"

Anyway, I just changed my email's password just in case and added 3 more verification steps. And from now on I will be more paranoid and cautious in every move I do.

 

[Progster]

That really sucks. For me, phone calls are the worst thing, because you don't get a chance to think or process information. I haven't been scammed, but have been manipulated into making poor decisions over the phone simply because I haven't processed what's going on. I avoid the phone like the plague.

 

[An0maly_1976]

Eh.... That SUCKS! Avoid aspie-singles, autism-singles, autism chat city, I believe it to be a Russian scam. I signed up for it and was almost taken, but my credit union blocked it, upon which I discovered the merchant name, 24-7-help.net, 24 7 HELP or something like that, was a known scam out of Russia. So anything that shows up on your bank or credit card statements that looks like that, you might want to replace your cards or close that bank account and open a new one.

 

[Jorg]

I don't know if it is because is so soon but I feel I can't trust any web site like I used to do in the past. I had my reserves and cautions but now, I don't know, I feel the need to check every damn safety feature I can. Look for the little lock on the URL bar, checking again and again the url is the correct.

My new passwords are around 20 characters at least, complex ones, letters, numbers and symbols.

Btw, it is 3am where I live. I feel tired but I can't fall asleep. If I didn't sleep well on normal circunstances...no way I could do it tonight. Im worried since tomorrow I have a job interview at afternoon and it is going to be in english, for those of you who don't know me, english is my 2nd language and oral skills are a little bit rusty. My native language is spanish.

 

[Crossbreed]

I partly fell for a scam earlier this year.

I gave them tech-support access to my computer when I logged into one of my on-line banking sites.
Once I realized it was a scam, I changed my login name & my password.

 

[aspieoutlaw89]

As the title says...I was scammed, seriously, Im an electronic engineer, I was always suspicious and didn't trust almost anything...

In the afternoon I received a call from my bank, as I had saved the number in my phone I answered. They said they were calling from Fraud department, someone tried to transfer a lot of money and tried to buy some computer equipment, they had the location, IP, name adn that it was made from an Iphone 11. We needed to block my accounts and my passwords. While that I was thinking on the back of my mind, DONT GIVE ANY PASSWORD, NOT PIN NUMBERS.

Anyway, it was purely social engineering, they made me change my bank password by one "the bank sent to my mail"...as I was feeling anxious and angry because someone tried to scam me my focus probably faded.

Anyway, in that bank I had only like $5...but the guy on the call said to me that as a precaution they needed to alert other banks I could have. So I felt for that, I never gave them any password but I did gave them my number account because I tought it was something normal, I mean, I give that number to my brother or someone else so they can transfer money to my account if needed, but never a password, because it is not needed.

Well, with the account number and I don't now how, the stole my money from that bank, around $200 I had there. I still can't figure how they did it, when I transfer money from that bank I need to write a random series of numbers asked by the bank, while looking to a plastic card with a series of rows and columns, I didn't give any of that, I never gave them the other bank password.

Anyway, I went in person to the 2nd bank (the one I had the $200) to ask if everything was good. The cashier was not sure, he said he never heard of the transactions name before...I then went to the other bank, the one from where the call was made. And well...they cashier told me I was scammed.

While I was angry, sad, anxious, stressed, I didn't worried about my own money, but my account was in someway linked to the one of my mother where she had a lot of money saved since her retirement. I started panicking but thank God that was in some weird saving form I couldnt access and the scammer could not see, they could only see like a couple of dollars.

Well, the protocol was activated, the bank froze my account, my card and I will we receiving a new one soon. Tomorrow I will go to the other bank to ask for a cancelation of my current accounts for new ones...I mean there is only a couple of dollars left there...

I thought the phone number was legit so that's why answered, but apparently, there is an app or software than allows you to mask the fake number under the legit one. People who make that kind of software deserve to be grilled alive...

Is like when things started to go good in my life...well, not so fast, here let me kick you down because you look too happy. I am unemployed, for months I have being looking for a job. Yesterday I was given a diploma from the College of engineers and I0m now able to work in engineering. Then today I had a job interview that went very well, great place to work and a great salary...

Life would be like: "You look to damn happy, here take this scam to level things"

Anyway, I just changed my email's password just in case and added 3 more verification steps. And from now on I will be more paranoid and cautious in every move I do.

 

[Captain Jigglypuff]

One thing I’ve always wanted to do to those live person scammers is start the conversation normally while I get this YouTube video of angry cats sounds to start playing and then make it seem like I’m talking to the cat before screaming in “pain” while yelling at the “cat” to stop attacking me and see how long before the scammer hangs up.

 

[Gerald Wilgus]

I have made it a rule that if somebody says they represent something, to hang up and call the number myself that I have for what they claim to represent.

 

[watersprite]

Hopefully you can forgive yourself & move on. I’m sometimes anxious about whether I’m taking enough care against scams & dishonest people.

 

[Mary Terry]

I hate to hear you got scammed. It happened to my sister, too.

This may be totally innocent and I apologize in advance if I am inappropriately maligning someone, but someone private messaged me here, asking if I would join him on a zoom or other face-to-face virtual meeting so he could practice speaking English. His written text was English perfect, better than most Americans' English, so I question whether English is truly not his first language. Not sure what he was up to, but I declined. I had never seen his name on any threads or posts here so it was definitely odd to me.

 

[Suzette]

I have made it a rule that if somebody says they represent something, to hang up and call the number myself that I have for what they claim to represent.

That is exactly what I do. I learned it from my credit union fraud department. My card was stollen and they called me. They identified themselves and then told me to hangup and call them back using the regular number.

To the o.p.
I am sorry you have had such a sucky experience!

 

[Aspychata]

I hate to hear you got scammed. It happened to my sister, too.

This may be totally innocent and I apologize in advance if I am inappropriately maligning someone, but someone private messaged me here, asking if I would join him on a zoom or other face-to-face virtual meeting so he could practice speaking English. His written text was English perfect, better than most Americans' English, so I question whether English is truly not his first language. Not sure what he was up to, but I declined. I had never seen his name on any threads or posts here so it was definitely odd to me.

Yes, this happened to me too. I just left the conversation.

I do a lot of bank stuff in person. I don't link my accounts either. I am really cutting back my credit card usage since our state is notorious for credit card scammer dohickies.

 

[Judge]

Any time I get one of those rare phone calls from a legitimate vendor I do business with, I will acknowledge the call, but say nothing else other than to ask for their name and number and then contact the parent office directly rather than deal with a cold call from someone who may- or may not be a legitimate representative of that vendor. Referring to a phone number that I know is legitimate rather than allowing them to provide one for my convenience.

If there's ever truly something wrong with your account, any number of customer service representatives can handle the problem. You need not depend on any one person who may initially contact you directly by phone.

Better for you to resolve the issue if it exists, by contacting your vendor yourself.

Bank online or through your cell phone? Really ?

 

[Judge]

This may be totally innocent and I apologize in advance if I am inappropriately maligning someone, but someone private messaged me here, asking if I would join him on a zoom or other face-to-face virtual meeting so he could practice speaking English. His written text was English perfect, better than most Americans' English, so I question whether English is truly not his first language. Not sure what he was up to, but I declined. I had never seen his name on any threads or posts here so it was definitely odd to me.

Yeah, I think I got something similar as well. PM me....let's compare.

 

[Progster]

I hate to hear you got scammed. It happened to my sister, too.

This may be totally innocent and I apologize in advance if I am inappropriately maligning someone, but someone private messaged me here, asking if I would join him on a zoom or other face-to-face virtual meeting so he could practice speaking English. His written text was English perfect, better than most Americans' English, so I question whether English is truly not his first language. Not sure what he was up to, but I declined. I had never seen his name on any threads or posts here so it was definitely odd to me.

Yeah, I think I got something similar as well. PM me....let's compare.

I got a message like this from someone, too. I suspect that a lot of people did.

 

[unperson]

yuh, for serious situations, do not rely on verbal processing, insist they put it in writing as a verifiable/legit thing. Banks rarely phone you if ever. If a genuine bank employee calls you, they're possibly naive or being scammed themselves.

 

[Mary Terry]

I'm relieved to know that the private messenger is legitimate. I'd like to help him but am uncomfortable with doing so in person. Plus, with my Southern drawl, I'm probably not the best coach for American English pronunciation.

 

[SDRSpark]

I hate to hear you got scammed. It happened to my sister, too.

This may be totally innocent and I apologize in advance if I am inappropriately maligning someone, but someone private messaged me here, asking if I would join him on a zoom or other face-to-face virtual meeting so he could practice speaking English. His written text was English perfect, better than most Americans' English, so I question whether English is truly not his first language. Not sure what he was up to, but I declined. I had never seen his name on any threads or posts here so it was definitely odd to me.

I got the same PM!!!! I ignored it, because I wasn't in the mood for outside of forum interaction. Now I'm glad I did.

 

[Jorg]

Well, yesterday I went to the bank where they took the money from, canceled the old accounts and did what I had to do. the only thing left is to go back to the bank I went on thursday for the new card. The first thing I did when the cashier told me I was probably going to receive a call from their Fraud department was...¿can I have thenumber written? So if I ever receive another call I will better return the call with a number I'm sure is safe

Maybe it is because it was a couple of days ago, but I really feel like more catious or "paranoid" surfing web. I changed all my passwords for something better, added 2 step verification and maybe more...but still I don't completely safe.

I was thinking, maybe when I find a job I will buy a second computer, not like a powerful pc but one which I will use only for banks stuff, not games, not work, not movies, just an "isolated" computer.

Lesson learned...