Tales From the Vault: This $30,000 Scam Nearly Worked

An AMG client recently received a pop-up ad on her computer screen asking her to renew a subscription for a software update.

The woman called the listed telephone number and talked to a friendly man who offered to help update her computer. After she gave him remote access to her screen, the man asked the AMG client to check her bank account to see if a refund he authorized had gone through. Actually, he was watching her keystrokes to decipher her account numbers and password.

He transferred about $30,000 from her savings account to her checking account and disguised it as an overpayment to his company. Then he asked her for a wire transfer for the subscription. That’s when she caught on to the scam and called AMG for help locking down her accounts.

AMG urged her to immediately hire Best Buy’s Geek Squad to scrub her computer for malware, change her AMG account numbers and passwords, and inform other financial institutions she uses about the scam attempt. She also was prompted to report the incident to local police, the state attorney general’s office, credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration.

Fortunately, the woman lost no money in the crook’s scam, but she came close. Next time, the crook could succeed, and the victim could be you.