The warnings are everywhere because the scams are happening all the time. And they happen all the time because they keep working.
Just this year, Prince George’s County police said they believe county residents have been scammed out of about $1 million. In recent weeks, arrests have been made in two cases, but not before one victim lost about $700,000 and another man lost about $40,000. The two incidents were unrelated, but similar in their deception.
“I was working on my computer one morning when a pop-up suggested that my computer had been hacked,” said the man who ended up losing about $40,000.
Days after turning it over to a courier who came to his home, police arrested 47-year-old Gyoung Lee, of New York City, when he showed up at the victim’s home thinking he was about to get more cash.
“I was dealing with people I would call evil geniuses,” the victim said, who agreed to be interviewed as long as he wasn’t identified. “At the time, I thought I was actually safeguarding the money.”
He spoke on the phone with someone he thought was from Microsoft, another woman who claimed to be from his bank and another who was supposedly a federal official. And there were times he pushed back to try and get identifying details.
“I said, ‘This is exactly what a scammer would do,’ at one point, and something about her polished rhetoric came back and convinced me otherwise.” he admitted.
Each time the scammer had phony employee numbers or other answers that sounded just convincing enough. In hindsight, what were the red flags?
“The man who told me that my laptop, my cellphone and my computer were all compromised — that any communication that I had via any of those three items was privy to other people’s overhearing, and that I should not talk to friends about this. I should not even do a Google search about scams connected to my bank,” he said. “That would be a huge red flag.”
According to police, victims can be young or old, rich or poor, and have various levels of education.
“Anytime someone asks you for your money, identity, passwords, that’s a red flag,” said Sgt. John Quarless, who is the officer in charge for the financial crimes division with the Prince George’s County Police Department.
“They’re going to create a sense of urgency, a sense of privacy and don’t want you to talk to anybody about it. What I encourage everyone to do is slow it down, hang up, call a friend, call your bank, call your local law enforcement department, and ask the questions, and let us do our job to help you.”
People around the country are falling prey. In the case of someone who lost $700,000, 25-year-old Parmveer Parmveer of Grove City, Ohio, was arrested.
“A lot of victims are embarrassed and don’t want to report it, but what I encourage, no matter how much information you have, is to call the police and report it and allow us to do our due diligence in investigating their crimes.”
But he admitted it takes time to rebuild trust with victims, especially if a scammer was already posing as a government official.
And the unfortunate reality is “it’s very rare for us to locate this money, especially in the immediate phase of investigations,” Quarless said. “Once you give them more money, they’re gonna call back and express urgency to give more money again.”
The victim who lost $40,000 told WTOP he’s hoping his story will resonate with someone else, and save them the hassle, loss and embarrassment of being scammed.
“If you receive a pop-up like that, turn off your computer, talk to a friend, call the police, visit your bank in person,” he said. “Don’t give any personal information out over the phone.”
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