Woman loses $40K to scammers. Here’s how cellphone scams could happen to you

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    STOCKTON, California (KCRA) — Spam calls are out of control. In the month of April alone, Californians received 364.3 million robocalls, according to the YouMail Robocall Index.

A Stockton woman emailed KCRA 3 Investigates after she said she fell victim to a scam. Now that Christel Wicks is out thousands of dollars she’s speaking out in hopes of saving someone else from having all of their money wiped out from their bank accounts.

In an interview with KCRA 3’s Brittany Johnson, Wicks, 67, said she’s rebuilding her life after falling victim to a highly sophisticated and very expensive scam.

“I haven’t been sleeping long, obviously, and just to be in such a quagmire,” Wicks said.

According to Wicks, someone pretending to work for Amazon Technical Support called her and said her account was hacked to the tune of $400 and they wanted to reimburse her.

“I tried to object. I said you know, the folks [Amazon], they will credit me for that,” she said.

Wicks said the scammers were persistent, and instead of hanging up the phone, she went to her computer and installed software that allowed the scammers to access her computer.

“I had to put in my password, but I didn’t realize that they also saw that,” Wicks recalled. “And then they said OK, now we can transfer the $400 to you.”

Wicks said when she opened her bank account so the money could be transferred, the scammers took over.

“So, I typed in $400, except when I was done it was $4,000.”

Wicks went on to explain that the scammers said they “accidentally” added an extra zero to the end of the $400, and mistakenly put $4,000 into her account. In order to correct their error and pay Amazon back, Wicks was asked to go out and purchase $4,000 worth of gift cards.

“One was at Safeway for GameStop, each of them $500 worth — two of them. Then I went into Rite Aid and got two GameStop cards, also in $500 value. Then they had me go to Best Buy and there I bought $2,000 worth.”

Wicks admitted that the cashiers warned her she may be the victim of a scam, but she kept listening to the scammer.

“I just wanted to get it over with,” Wicks said. “I just was sick to my stomach. I just didn’t want anything to do with the money. I wanted to get rid of it because obviously it wasn’t mine. Little did I know that it was mine.”

But the scammers weren’t done, Wicks told KCRA 3. They used the same trick to convince her to once again open her account to them. This time the amount scammers allegedly deposited was $40,000, and they asked for a money transfer to make it right.

Wicks followed their instructions even after a bank teller warned her this could be a scam.

“Of course it all sounds really stupid, but I didn’t want the responsibility for all that money,” she said.

Ultimately, Wicks had her accounts wiped out and five credit cards maxed out, according to a police report.

In a statement emailed to KCRA 3 Investigates, a spokesperson for Amazon said:

“Any customer that receives a questionable email, call or text from a person impersonating an Amazon employee should report them to Amazon customer service. Amazon investigates these complaints and will take action, if warranted.”

“How are you paying all of this?” Johnson asked Wicks.

“I can’t. There’s no way I can pay for it. I’m on Social Security, now in a lot of debt and living with my children,” she said.

Wicks is far from the only person to fall for a scam like this.

“When our investigators are looking at these type of cases, one thing that they’ve noticed are these suspects are targeting older people, and what they’re doing, they’re calling them on the phone,” explained Joe Silva, a public information officer for the Stockton Police Department.

Officer Silva said Wicks did the right thing in filing a police report, but finding the scammers and getting her money back is a challenge.

“With these type of investigations sometimes there’s obstacles, such as, if there’s a phone number that is used during this scam, sometimes after the scam is completed, that phone number becomes non-existent and can’t be traced.”

How to identify a scam
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, more people than you may realize fall for scams like this one. While seniors are a favorite target, with more people working from home during the pandemic, scamming techniques have amplified and everyone is a target.

“We would say that compared to last year, we have seen a rise, especially in online or text message-related scams,” said Alex Schmidt, a special agent with the FBI.

Schmidt advised for people to “take a step back and use caution” when answering such calls.

“If it feels like an emergency, if it feels like someone is calling you and it seems a little off, a little unusual, then take a deep breath and just think about the situation,” Schmidt said. “More often than not, you’re going to start to ponder, is this legitimate? And if that question is at all in your mind, you should thank the caller or the person contacting you, tell them you’ll contact them back, and then look up online, the legitimate source of information to reach that retailer, and then go out and find it.”

Federal Agent Allison Boos says people should also be wary of anyone asking you to download software.

“Usually with that scam, scammers will call up or by email, they’ll convince you that they’re a member of either your internet provider or something like that, and they’re trying to help you out with a problem,” Boos said. “They’ll convince you to download the software that allows them to remotely control your computer.”

Boos says never click on any links that are sent to you and if you fall for a scam make sure to report it immediately.

“The best advice we can give is the sooner they report it the better chance we have of getting back,” Boos said. “We work extensively with the banks to try to return money to people. If it’s within a few days we have a pretty good chance of getting that money back.”

Other scams these federal agents say people should be on the lookout for include: Romance and money mule scams, and scammers calling from familiar numbers with your same area code pretending to be a friend or a loved one.

FBI Resources
FBI Internet Crimes Complaint Center website
Money Mules
Six essential tips to help guard against becoming a victim of an internet scam
Quick and efficient means of reporting alleged fraud, even if a financial loss was not experienced
Current cyber concerns

Amazon Resources
Suspicious calls or emails from people impersonating Amazon employees can be submitted to: stop-spoofing@amazon.com
Amazon security/scam information
How to tell if an email, phone calls are really from Amazon (and information about reporting fraud calls to FTC)

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