Tag Archives: scam

That Time I Fell for a Scam…

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I made a really stupid mistake just before Christmas.  I pride myself on knowing enough not to fall into financial traps.  And I did exactly that.

I was doom scrolling through social media and came across an ad offering me a too good to be true deal on an electric fireplace/entertainment center.  I wanted it to be real.  It looked real.  So I clicked.  It took me to a web site that looked just like Big Lots.  But it was BigLotsSale.com.  Not Big Lots.  I was convinced it was real.  I really wanted that fireplace. So I jumped.  I put in my info and my credit card and I was off.  I received a confirmation email, so I was sure this was for real.  A day or two later I received an email confirming the shipping.  It was real!  It had to be real!

After a few more days. I went back to the shipping email to click the tracking number and find out when my amazing fireplace would arrive.  And that’s when I figured it out.  The tracking number didn’t lead to anywhere.  I started searching the shipping company and discovered it was fake.  Crap!  I had been duped.  A subsequent search on BigLotsSale led me to discover that this is a very common, yet very well done, scam.  Reddit helped me find all of the painful information.

My first action after discovering my mistake was to lock my credit card.  Then I looked at the charges on my card and found one that I had not made.  I called my credit union and they removed the charge I didn’t make right away.  They canceled my card for me and walked me through the process to dispute the charge that I did make on the fake web site.  Then came the fun of moving all of my automatically billed things to a different card.  Automation is great….until it isn’t.  Then I went out to the three credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, and TransUnion) and put freezes on my account, so the scammers would not be able to open new credit in my name.

I’m actually very lucky.  There is no significant damage caused by my error.  My only potential loss is the $50 charge I made trying to buy the fireplace.  And I may eventually get that back as well.  And I learned a very valuable lesson about buying things through an ad on social media.  I don’t recommend doing it without first researching the “merchant.”  But I also learned how easy it is for people to fall victim to a scam.  I’m very educated in this area and still fell for it.  How easy would it be for someone who doesn’t  focus their life around financial education to make this mistake and have it turn out so much worse?

I’m trying not to beat myself up over this.  It’s done.  I learned something. Everything turned out ok.  This was a very impressive, sophisticated scam.  I’m not a financial idiot…just someone who really wanted an amazing deal on something I really desired.  Technology is scary.  The scammers knew from my online history what would make me jump.  And I definitely won’t be making that mistake again.  A mistake is only a problem if you don’t learn something from it.  And I definitely learned a valuable lesson about shopping from social media ads.

If you have ever fallen for a scam, don’t take it as a personal failure.  It’s not.  It’s an opportunity to move forward with better knowledge than you had before.

Be careful out there.  The internet is a scary place!

 

A Moneywise Twofer–Protect Yourself

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Sometimes it’s just way too hard to choose only one topic for my weekly writing adventure.  This week there are two things that both seem to need urgent attention, so the Moneywise Tip is going to be a twofer.

First up, September 4 is the last day for students to purchase the Penn State Student Health Insurance Policy (SHIP) for fall semester.  And while you are young and healthy it’s easy to think you can get away with not having insurance.  But you really shouldn’t.  One broken bone.  One bad case of the flu.  One inflamed appendix.  Any one of these can happen at any time, and without health insurance it can easily set you on the path to a lifetime of medical debt. You can read more about that here.  But know that the choice to skip insurance is a game of Russian roulette you really shouldn’t play.

And for the second topic of the day, a student came to me last week to discuss something that scared both of us.  She came in to say, “I came to give you the information you called me about this morning.”  She went on to tell me that she had received a phone call from me asking for her birthdate and Social Security number for a student job she was applying for.  One big problem:  I hadn’t called her.  The caller had used my name, but I didn’t place the call.  It was a scammer. The reality is, anyone with access to the internet would be able to figure out that she is a student at Penn State Law, and I am the Financial Aid Director at Penn State Law.  I’m actually kind of stunned that someone would do this level of research to try to run a phone phishing scam.  But it happened.  So how do you protect yourself against this kind of thing?  My rule of thumb is that I never give out personal information on a phone call that I did not initiate.  No date of birth.  No Social Security numbers.  No credit card numbers.  If I didn’t place the call, no one is getting that kind of info out of me over the phone. Period.  And thankfully, this student was smart and didn’t share that info on the phone, even though she thought it was me on the other end of the phone.  WHEW!  (Just so you know—I would never ask for that kind of info on the phone.  I would always ask for you to bring physical documentation of these things.) Scammers are still everywhere, so make sure to protect yourself!

Fun with Phone Scams

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It seems that telephone scams are alive and well even in this digital age.  Several times a week I’ll get a phone call (on my cell phone) from a number I don’t recognize.  Sometimes I don’t answer.  Sometimes I do.

Recently I decided to answer one of these calls and ended up listening to a computer voice tell me that this was my last chance to save money on my student loans before certain federal programs end.  Since my student loans have been paid off for a very long time, and I also happen to know more than a little about federal student aid programs (such as that no federal student aid programs are currently scheduled to end), I decided that I would try to have a little fun.

The computer voice told me to press 5 if I knew my FSA ID or 8 if I needed help retrieving it.  So this was a cue to me that the mission of this scammer was likely to get my FSA ID and use that to retrieve other private information about me (like my Social Security number and birth date).  I pressed 5 and then was put on hold for a minute or so.  This seemed weird since I was on the receiving end of the phone call.  But I held.  I wanted to play.  Eventually I was greeted by someone who asked if I was having trouble making my student loan payments.  I said that no, that wasn’t really a problem, and then they promptly hung up.  But much to my delight, they called back just a few minutes later, so the game could continue.  I pressed 5 and waited my turn again.  And this time the voice on the other end asked me if I had student loans.  I said that I assumed they knew I did, since they had called me about this issue.  Again…a hang up.

The student loan people have not called me back since that day.  My game wasn’t much fun.  I’ve had financial aid administrator friends keeps folks like this on the line for up to half an hour.  My experience pales by comparison.  But the message was received.  Phone scammers are out there, disguised as student loan consolidators.  Beware if you get a call from these folks.  They are not trying to help you.  And if you do have questions or concerns about your student loans, your answers are best found with either your loan servicer or your friendly neighborhood Financial Aid Director in suite 105 of the Katz Building.  And never give out any personal information on a telephone call you did not initiate.