Scam scare
I nearly got scammed last week. Luckily, we knew just the person who could help me. But let’s start at the beginning.
Sometimes when I buy items online, I use PayPal, a very reputable company which I have used many times. Once you sign up, you don’t have to keep putting your credit card numbers in (expiration date, code, etc.). Right after you pay for an item, you get a text message confirming your purchase.
I got what “appeared” to be a text from PayPal confirming a $950 purchase I hadn’t made. I clicked on the 1-800 number in the text. A very nice man answered saying “I can help you with that.” What happened over the next 45 minutes was a nightmare. He actually got into my computer and told me to start clicking on gift cards — because “that’s the only way we have of getting your money back.” At one point he said he had transferred $1,000 to my checking account. I called the bank on my husband’s cell phone. No such transfer was made. Finally, I realized this was a scam. I logged onto the PayPal website: their 1-800 number wasn’t the same as the one in the text.
My husband and I drove to the Topsham Fair Mall to the Nerd Barn where we hoped an amazing computer guru named Josh would help me clear up the mess these con artists had made. As always, Josh was fantastic. He immediately sat down with us and asked all kinds of questions about how this whole scam unfolded. He cleared my computer of any potential danger.
My advice? Never click on…
