During the Christmas holidays my husband and I were subjected to a scam. I need to start at the beginning for you to get the true value as to how NOT to let this happen to you….
I was at work and my husband was home alone and doing surveys on his computer when he got a phone call. Now here is where I suggest that upon seeing the phone number and you don’t recognize that number, DON’T PICK it up. For if it is someone you know, they will leave a message.
My husband, not thinking, proceeded to pick it up. The man said he was from Microsoft and that our warranty was about to expire and our computers could be subjected to virus’s. I got my husbands permission to take over the operation of his computer and a box popped up showing my husband that our computer was already infected. And then my husband went to my laptop and gave them permission to take over my computer and he showed him the same thing that my computer was already infected.
If I was there I would have known this to not be true, because I had already cleaned out our computers a few days before.
Anyway he told my husband that for $35 we could have a lifetime warranty on both computers against any kind of virus’s. So my husband gave him his credit card number and the man put the order through. Then he came back a few minutes later and said that he made a mistake and than he charged our card for $217.
Wait to you hear what he said next. He told my husband to go to the nearest office to send a money gram of $350 and then he would send us a check for $700 to cover our $217 plus extra for the inconvenience.
My husband told him he didn’t even have a car and the guy said no problem just take a cab. By this time my husband was almost ready to have a heart attack and couldn’t wait for me to come home. And he was also so upset that he fell for this and now we were locked out of both computers and I use mine for my online business.
That was the other thing. He had us locked out of our computers and would not unlock them until we sent that money gram of $350.
When I got home and my husband was trying to tell me the story this guy called back. And I don’t really have to tell you word for word what I told this guy but I sounded like a truck driver.
He kept telling me to calm down and I kept telling him to send me a check for $217. He said he couldn’t do that and I told him where to go. I hung up and grabbed my laptop and told my husband we were going over to Best Buy which thank god was only about 5 minutes from our house.
By the time I got there I was in tears from frustration and the nice geek told me to calm down and that they could fix it. It would take a few days but it can be fixed. And then he proceeded to tell us that they get 1 to 2 of these situations a day. I couldn’t believe what he was telling me.
I left my laptop there and then we had to run home to get my husbands computer so they could fix his also. As my husband was talking to the geek squad I was outside the store talking to my bank to cancel my husbands card and to file a fraud alert. But there was nothing they could do about stopping the $217 because it was run as a debit and that is the same as cash.
So another lesson learned. Never ever use a debit card over the phone whenever you can use a credit card.
And to top it off I was talking to a rep that was from India and I was having a hard time understanding him and he was not understanding me either. He kept telling me to call the merchant back so they would refund my money. He was not understanding that this whole thing was a scam..
And I forgot to mention that the guy on the phone for the scam call was also from India. So by the time I was dealing with my bank I was really livid. I wanted to talk to an American who I could understand and they could understand me.
So this all happened on a Wednesday and my husband got his computer back by Friday evening and mine was ready Saturday afternoon.
So all in all things turned out pretty good and my husband learned a valuable lesson. He does not answer the phone anymore unless he knows who is on the other end of the line.
I always told him not to answer the phone because that is what caller ID is for. If you don’t know who it is, don’t pick it up. But he was always curious as to who it was. And they were always a sales person or even better a recording of a sales person. So he would have to hang up anyway.
So any way, I was hesitate about doing a video on the subject because my husband was so upset and felt like a fool for falling for something like that. But I told him that he was not the only one and our story needed to be told. So below is a video I did while I was on a break at work. It has gotten over 700 views.
So after you watch the video if you can share it so others can learn from our mistakes, that would be awesome…
For the life of me I don’t understand how people can deliberately try to swindle people out of money. If these people had half a brain, they would use their knowledge on helping people instead of trying to manipulate them. And they would get so much further in life.
And that is why I have an online business that I work from home. And I would love to share it with you. Because if you ever wondered how people create an income working from home then you have landed in the right place. Just click on the link below and check it out. You will be in business for yourself but not by yourself. Click here and I will see you on the inside….
Before I go, I just did an update on the status of this incident. You will be amazed and surprised.
