Victim Location 83703
Total money lost $9,500
Type of a scam Tech Support
I got a large RED Warning Alert on my computer while online (I should have taken a photo of it) and I couldn’t get it off without shutting down. So I called the number on it and they said who they were, and that I if went to this website and gave them remote access they’d show me what I had been attacked by. It showed WANNACRY ransomware and TROJAN. So I purchased their security, and they wiped the stuff off and added protection for $400. for one year protection.
One month later, I got a call saying they had installed the wrong program and will refund my $400. I asked where he was, and other questions without good answers. But since the first caller had an arab-sounding accent too, it seemed like the same people. So I gave "DAVID" (arab accent) access to remove and then go to a refund website where he showed me the refunded amount was in error- he sent to my account $10,000! I asked what happens next, just reverse it? He said he cannot take that much out of my account, it would be a red flag, involve a lot of time, and he needed it sent back right away so he wouldn’t lose his job. He told me that if I didn’t do what he said, he would take all the money out of account, above the $10,000. I said "are you threatening me?" He told me to go to Walmart to get gift [email protected]$1000 at one store, the rest at another store, but keep $500 for my trouble and refund. I didn’t want to lose all the other money I had in there, so I did it. That would’ve been a lesser loss. I had plenty of signs that it was not legit, but somehow I just had faith it was ok. When I looked at my bank acct when it was all done, the $10,000 "deposit" was gone and so was my $9500 for the gift cards purchased. The bank said there was no sign anything had ever been put in my account that day. It was all a fake, lie, scam. And since I ran the purchase voluntarily, the bank wouldn’t cover the loss. The jerk (David) even called back the next day to say he wanted to return the money to our acct but there was no way to do it unless we got on their website. Fool me once, shame on you, Fool me twice, shame on me. No way – so we will never see that money again I’m sure. The company that installed the program said they never called us to refund or uninstall. "Its not their fault I fell for the scam."