Beware of Refund/Overpayment Scams [View all]

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Have you ever received a suspicious email claiming you bought something you didn't or receive a suspicious phone call claiming to be your bank, or a company like Apple or Microsoft or even the government? Unfortunately these scams are so common that there are multiple Wikipedia articles dedicated to them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Overpayment_scam

I want to share some tips that I've learned to hopefully reduce your chances of being a victim of these scams. Please note that what I have here isn't foolproof or complete, just a few ideas you can try.

For suspicious emails one I've unfortunately seen many times is that it is an email claiming to usually come from an antivirus software company like Norton or McAfee but it could be from anyone and it will look like an invoice and say that the amount was charged to your credit/debt card. Then it will say if you didn't make this purchase it will either have a phone number to call or a link to click. The phone number or website is of course not the real one owned by the company but rather a fake one operated by the scammers.

If you're worried about this check with your bank or credit card company to see if you were actually charged. If you were not charged it means that the email is a scam and you should delete it and never contact the scammers. If your email provider or company email has an option to report the email please do so prior to deletion because it might help prevent other people from being scammed. If you were actually charged it could mean your credit/debit card was stolen so you should tell your bank or credit card issuer about it.

For suspicious phone calls honestly these days hopefully people are careful about answering the phone. This isn't a 100% sure thing but I've noticed often times scammers don't leave messages but don't depend on this. if you did answer the phone and they are saying they are your bank, a company or a government agency the best thing to do is hang up and call the company/agency directly using the official number and ask if they called.

Often times these scams will involve using software to remotely control your computer. While they are watching they will ask you to login to your bank account (which I might add that alone is a terrible idea because they might be able to steal your password). Then they will run some fake "refund" software on your computer which is usually just running cmd.exe or something basic. Then they will hit the zero key as you're typing the refund amount and then edit the page on your bank account to make it look like you received the money but it's just a fake thing. If you call your bank directly you'll see there are no changes to your bank account but you should notify them of what happened because the scammers may now have your password if you let them watch you login to your bank account.

Their goal is to trick you into sending them the difference that you supposedly (but didn't actually) overpay or the amount above the refund. They will often ask for difficult to trace or reverse payment methods like cryptocurrency or gift cards. Note that a bank or a government agency will never accept payment in gift cards.

Also I advise you if you have elderly parents or family please spread the word to them to make sure they won't become victims of scams.