The Scam Sounded So Real!
I was enjoying a foggy evening at home when I got an email from a friend telling me she was so sad because she knew her eldest dog’s life was coming to a close.
I asked her if she had a good vet who would be kind and gentle and she replied yes and described the vet to me.
Then, just below that, she wrote: “Marianne I need to borrow $1,000 right away before she goes to the vet.”
I was very surprised, because her sudden request didn’t sound like my friend. (RED FLAG!) This is where I should have picked up a phone and called her, but I emailed her back and said I thought her email was being hacked and she replied immediately, “No I wasn’t hacked, I need the money.”
So, I went into my PayPal account and sent her the $1,000. (The email was not familiar to me, but I thought it was her vet’s address.) (RED FLAG!)
About an hour later she called and I asked if she had gotten the money OK. She was horrified! No, she hadn’t requested money from me. It had to have been a scam. (They even sent a thank you!)
I called the bank immediately and was told to come down to the branch and fill out the fraud incident papers. The charge was still in the pending box in my account, so we’re hoping the bank acted in time. I gave them a copy of the email thread and filed a report with the sheriff’s office.
What do I do now to protect myself from this scammer? I changed my email password but I don’t know what else I should be doing.
Another friend also got a fraudulent call several months ago from “an officer with the EPD” who claimed to have arrested her daughter for talking on her phone while driving. They had “confiscated” her cell phone. After some conversation, they said they would put her daughter on the phone. The voice sounded like her daughter and the caller even knew my friend’s mother’s maiden name!
She called the police anyway, and they called her daughter, who was at Costco shopping!
So the lesson is always to independently contact any “friend,” family member or agency that contacts you to confirm the dire news is true before taking any action, like sending money!
Marianne Morse lives in Eureka.
