What everyone can learn from the woman who lost $50,000 to a scam [View all]

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https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/02/17/scam-tips-columnist-50k/

https://archive.ph/cXb91

What everyone can learn from the woman who lost $50,000 to a scam
Don’t want to end up handing a box of cash to scammers? Watch for these red flags.
By Heather Kelly
February 17, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST

Everyone thinks they’re too smart to fall for a scam until it happens to them.

Today, you might be making fun of the financial-advice writer who went viral for putting $50,000 in cash in a box and handing it to a stranger. Tomorrow, you or someone you love could be falling for a less dramatic scam.

In her article for New York Magazine’s the Cut, journalist Charlotte Cowles describes in detail how she fell for an elaborate scam that used fear, technology and her data to convince her it was real. A caller posed as someone from Amazon, then transferred her to someone posing as a Federal Trade Commission liaison, then someone claiming to be from the CIA and finally the scammers convinced her to withdraw cash and hand it over to a stranger outside her home.

The end result sounds wild on its own, but broken down step by step the scam did include the kinds of convincing details that frequently trick people. Here’s what we can all learn from this scam.

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https://www.thecut.com/article/amazon-scam-call-ftc-arrest-warrants.html

https://archive.ph/YJG9z

Feb. 15, 2024
The Day I Put $50,000 in a Shoe Box and Handed It to a Stranger I never thought I was the kind of person to fall for a scam.
By Charlotte Cowles, the Cut’s financial-advice columnist.

On a Tuesday evening this past October, I put $50,000 in cash in a shoe box, taped it shut as instructed, and carried it to the sidewalk in front of my apartment, my phone clasped to my ear. “Don’t let anyone hurt me,” I told the man on the line, feeling pathetic.

“You won’t be hurt,” he answered. “Just keep doing exactly as I say.”

Three minutes later, a white Mercedes SUV pulled up to the curb. “The back window will open,” said the man on the phone. “Do not look at the driver or talk to him. Put the box through the window, say ‘thank you,’ and go back inside.”

The man on the phone knew my home address, my Social Security number, the names of my family members, and that my 2-year-old son was playing in our living room. He told me my home was being watched, my laptop had been hacked, and we were in imminent danger. “I can help you, but only if you cooperate,” he said. His first orders: I could not tell anyone about our conversation, not even my spouse, or talk to the police or a lawyer.

Now I know this was all a scam — a cruel and violating one but painfully obvious in retrospect. Here’s what I can’t figure out: Why didn’t I just hang up and call 911? Why didn’t I text my husband, or my brother (a lawyer), or my best friend (also a lawyer), or my parents, or one of the many other people who would have helped me? Why did I hand over all that money — the contents of my savings account, strictly for emergencies — without a bigger fight?

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