A woman in the San Francisco Bay Area was surprised when she went on a cruise when "authorized users" were mysteriously added to her Chase credit card account out of nowhere. She learned this from the U.S. Postal Service when 35 credit cards appeared in her mail.'
credit: ABC7 News San Francisco
Bay Area Woman Was on a Cruise When 35 Credit Cards Arrived
Jodi Hayes of Walnut Creek, CA was traveling on a cruise with her husband in August 2024 when she was notified about mail from Chase. It turns out that 35 people were added to her Marriot Bonvoy Chase credit card account.
She said:
"I know I have good credit, but I've never seen anything like this ever. This fiasco ruined the end of our vacation." -Jodi Hayes
She contacted Chase about the issue, and she says their response was very "basic."
She says Chase claims it was due to a "computer glitch," and they offered to stop the cards from ever being activated.
Then the Chase fraud department contacted her to make a note on her account before giving her a new account number altogether.
She wanted them to tell her "We'll investigate it," but just proceeded to issue her a new account number and left it at that.
"After reading "Jennifer Harman" by Jackie Alyson, delving into "The Wager" by David Grann could be a fascinating follow-up choice. While Alyson's work focuses on a specific individual, Grann's narrative delves into broader themes of risk and consequence, drawing parallels to the unpredictability of outcomes in different contexts. Grann's storytelling prowess, as seen in his exploration of historical events and human behavior, aligns with the depth of character analysis found in Alyson's writing [2]. Additionally, the concept of wagering is not only a literary theme but also a teaching method that can motivate learning and foster interest in a subject, as discussed by Miller [3]. Therefore, transitioning from a character-driven piece to a narrative rich in historical context and moral dilemmas like "The Wager" can offer a well-rounded reading experience that explores diverse storytelling techniques and themes."
28-year-old Fernando Ochoa scammed over two dozen people after taking money from his victims and not providing any food trucks in return. Authorities investigated this case in Stanislaus County, California.
Fernando Ochoa; credit: CBS 13 News
CBS 13 Newsreported that 28-year-old Fernando Ochoa scammed over two dozen people after taking money from his victims and not providing any food trucks in return.
The scammer took money from several victims that thought they were buying food trucks from him.
Authorities have totaled over $992,000 in money stolen, and it could go over a million after the investigation is over.
One couple, Adriana and Nika Nicaron gave Ochoa $20,000 in cash, and he never delivered anything to them. They own Kaji Teppenyaki, a food business and found 8A Food Trucks online, which was how the met Fernando Ochoa.
According to CBS 13 News, they paid him the 20,000 and he promised to have their food truck in two months, but it never came.
The theft of their money "almost destroyed their business."
On Thursday, April 18, Ochoa pled not guilty to 28 counts of fraud against him, with a bail increased to $500,000.
A Texas woman who wanted a larger home in Fort Worth found a "great deal" on a rental property. She speaks to a man online who gave her a code to a smart lock, allowing her inside the home for the self-tour. She signs a lease and pays him. As she is trying to move in, she finds out that this was someone else's home and she lost over $2K in a growing scam.
Mendi CrusonPhoto byCBS 11 News
Texas Woman Loses Over $2K in Rental Scam
CBS 11 Newsreported on Thursday that Mendi Cruson was looking for a larger home with a big backyard for her family, and she thought she found the perfect home in Forth Worth online "on websites like Realtor.com and Zillow."
That's how she met a man online named "Thomas Woodcock" who claimed to be the owner of the home and explained why he couldn't meet her in person.
He told her the following:
"I have several properties that I lease out with me and my partner, but I live out of state." -Thomas Woodcock, man claiming to be homeowner
Thomas Woodcock asked her to register her personal information on the website, 'InvitationHomes.com,' which gave her an access code to the smart lock which allowed Cruson to go inside and do a self-guided tour of the home.
She loved what she saw, so she wanted to move forward.
CBS 11 Newsreported that Cruson "paid more than $2,000 for the security deposit and first month's rent" and went ahead with moving in, after receiving documentation.
She Noticed Red Flags on Moving Day
On the moving day, she thought it was strange that she had to pay a locksmith to change the smart lock code on the house just to get into the house.
The next red flag was when a man driving a gray car showed up at her front door.
He asked her, "Why are you moving into my home?"
She replied, 'Sir, I have a lease, I can show you all the documentation, I'm renting this house."
The man informed her, "Well I'm moving in this weekend, you just watch and see."
Not long after this encounter, two Invitation Homes employees show up at the house and tell Cruson she was scammed.
The man she paid for the security deposit and first month's rent was a scammer and not the owner of the home.
The U.S. Sun recommends looking for discrepancies when home shopping, such as varying prices in rent on different websites. It might indicate that one of these is not the real listing.
In the case of Mendi Cruson, she found a price online that was listed much cheaper than InvitationHomes.com was leasing the home for. They invited Mendi to re-apply for a lease, which confirmed that the actual lease price was higher than what she paid in the scam. Her family was forced to move out weeks later.
CBS 11 Newsreported that this type of rental scam has been targeting large property management firms in North Texas, such as FirstKey, StreetLane Homes, and Progress Residential.
Thoughts
Now it is time for the reader to share your thoughts on this story.
Did you know that scammers were listing homes and properties that didn't belong to them?
What would you do if you came across a scam posting online?
Please like and share this article so others can be informed about the latest scams online.
A nursefrom California was tricked into sending $1000 to a scammer posing as a Wells Fargo representative. The scam involved a compromised bank account and a request to send money through Zelle to "fix" the error on her "hacked" account.
Wells Fargo; credit: by Mike Mozart, CC BY DEED 2.0
TIME reported that 33-year-old Venessa Dikousman from Ceres, California was called by a man claiming to be from Wells Fargo to notify her that her bank account was being hacked. The man calling her cell phone was a scammer.
The number he called her from was the same as Wells Fargo's number, so it looked legitimate. The scammer was spoofing Wells Fargo to trick her into thinking he was a real employee.
Wells Fargo Scammer: 'You've Been Hacked. Send Money Using Zelle'
The man told her to fix the situation, she would need to "send $3,500 through Zelle to fix the breach."
Dikousman sent $1000 USD to the scammer and then realized that she was being scammed.
Dikousman reported the scam to Wells Fargo, and TIME reported that Wells Fargo "initially refused to refund the $1000 taken out of her account."
Financial institutions are not obligated to refund customers if they actually send their own money out to scammers, because this would not technically be "unauthorized."
It was about four months later that TIME contacted Wells Fargo to find out if they were going to refund her money. At that time, Wells Fargo decided to refund Dikousman the $1000.
Do You Think Wells Fargo Should Have Refunded Her Money Sooner?
Some people might wonder if Wells Fargo was going to refund her money if TIME had not contacted them.
What do you think? (Share your thoughts in the comments)
An 80-year-old woman is suing Chase Bank after she fell for a crypto investment scam known as "pig butchering" that took over $720,000 of her life savings, and left her "struggling to pay her bills."
Chase bank (stock photo)Photo byMike Mozart; CC BY 2.0 DEED
A Taiwanese immigrant and senior citizen with a disabled adult son had no idea she was being scammed, but this is how many "pig butchering" scams go.
A scammer gains the trust of an unsuspecting person and convinces them to send money or invest money in a scheme, and it ends with the victim losing all of their money.
This is what happened to one California woman who is now desperately suing Chase bank after losing over $720K to a scammer.
Los Angeles Woman Trusts Scammer and Loses Life Savings
KCAL-TV News reported that 80-year-old Alice Lin in Los Angeles thought that a man she met on WeChat would help her make money with cryptocurrency investing in a trading app. She didn't know the man and met him when he messaged her for the first time.
He gained her trust through an online friendship that started on WeChat.
He then convinced her to download a "trading app" and he convinced her to send her money, but she didn't realize it was not a real investing app.
She said:
“Then I was thinking, I can help my son, who is on disability. So, I thought, that would be good. That I can, you know, make a little bit of money.” -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
Alice Lin, 80Photo byKCAL-TV News
Then over several weeks, he convinced her to wire over $720,000 to him. She went to her local Chase bank branches to wire "hundreds of thousands of dollars" over several days in August, and the total amount came to $721,500.
After he received the money, all communication from the scammer stopped.
It was a scam, and the returns on her money were too good to be true.
She said:
“He gave me the instructions and where to send the money to. So for me to go to the bank, to wire the money, and at that time, I totally trust him, so I just follow him.” -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
CBS 4 News Miami reported that Lin was extremely depressed after she lost $720K, to the point that she felt suicidal.
With very little left in her bank account, she is now "trying to find comfort in the simple things in life," because the pig butchering scam stole her life savings.
Alice Lin is Suing Chase Bank After Losing $720K in Scam
Now, she holds Chase Bank at fault for allowing her to send her money to a scammer.
"Only if they had done a little something to protect elders like me from being scammed, I wouldn't be where I am now an 80-year-old widow left to pick up the pieces of my life." -Alice Lin, Chase bank customer
On Monday, 26 February 2024 Lin's attorney Anne Marie Murphy filed a complaint in the Los Angeles Superior Court, citing "red flags that Chase bank knew Ms. Lin was being scammed or definitely should have known."
A woman from Westminster is alerted by warning messages on her computer that "her IP address has been hacked." It tells her to call a number and she is greeted by a person claiming to be from "Microsoft headquarters," who conspires to steal $37K from her in an "imposter scam."
photo credit: Microsoft logo (stock photo)Photo byMike Mozart; CC BY 2.0 DEED
According to the FTC data on the Consumer Sentinel Network, Americans lost more than $2.7 billion in "imposter scams" in 2023. These are scams where an unsuspecting person is duped by a scammer posing as an official or representative of a company.
A Colorado woman shared her recent experience with a scammer to try and warn others before it's too late.
KUSA 9Newsreported on Thursday that Diana Peltier from Westminster, Colorado received a troubling message on her computer, warning her that her "IP address had been hacked." The warning alert provided a phone number for her to call and looked very similar to the image on the screen below.
photo credit: Windows messagePhoto byKUSA 9News
She trusted the information on the screen and called the phone number where she was greeted by a man claiming to be from Microsoft headquarters, who sounded "calm and assuring," who told her "they were going to take care of her. They are going to be certain that I'm going to be OK."
The scammer told her to click on a link, which downloaded remote software onto her computer, which allowed him to take "complete control" over her computer.
That's when he told Peltier that he could "see her accounts were being hacked." He then offered to connect her to her bank's fraud department.
Peltier Was Transferred to 'Bank Fraud Department'
Peltier was transferred to a woman named "Allison with US Bank" who was soft-spoken and calming her down, telling her to "breathe," while continuing to emphasize her accounts were hacked.
Peltier was then instructed to go to her bank and withdraw her money from her "hacked" bank account and to deposit it into a "safe place" and the safest nearby place to deposit her money was the nearest Bitcoin ATM at a liquor store.
That's where Peltier deposited the $37,000 she removed from her bank account, just as she had been coached to do by scammers.
photo credit: Diana PeltierPhoto byKUSA 9News
She said:
"Within four hours, it was all over with. It was all gone." -Diane Peltier, Colorado scam victim
In hindsight she regrets it.
She said:
"I should have hung up with everybody. I should have unplugged the computer. I wasn't thinking right. I wasn't thinking right. I wasn't thinking clearly." -Diane Peltier, Colorado scam victim
Now, it is unlikely Peltier will ever see her money lost in this scam.
Always remember: Banks and officials will never ask for payment in gift cards or cryptocurrency.
Help protect friends and family by liking and sharing this article with others so they can be informed about this type of scam.
