Maryland Woman Loses $17K from her Bank of America Account After a Crook Goes into a Verizon Store w/ Her Phone Number & Gets a SIM Card

A Maryland woman was scammed out of $17,000 in her Bank of America bank account after a scammer walked into a California Verizon store with her phone number and obtained a SIM card for her account, shutting off her phone. Then the scammer steals $17K from her Bank of America bank account.

Verizon Wireless store

Scammers continue to find new ways to steal money from hard-working people, even when a person has two-factor authentication on an account.

A Maryland woman learns that even with two-factor authentication, a criminal still accessed her account and took $17K from her with a SIM card swap.

Details on what happened are below.

A Scammer Walks into a Verizon Store with a Woman's Phone Number

7News reported on Wednesday that Sharon Hussey from Maryland was "stunned" after a criminal took control of her account after walking into a California Verizon store with her phone number.

The crook then changed her Bank of America contact information "within minutes" and then took $17,000 from her bank account, even though she had two-factor authentication enabled.

She said:

"I don't know what kind of story they told them, but they bought a new phone, gave them my phone number and were issued a new SIM card, and with that SIM card they can take over everything. I don't know if the could access my banking apps. I don't know what immediate access they had...they could change my Verizon account information, they changed my password, they changed another phone number that was on there, and then they went into Bank of America, and now that they have this phone with my control, they were able to make a sizable withdrawal and when they were sent a code to the phone, they had it." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

 She said:

"It was absolutely stunning. My heart dropped to the floor...and the bottom just kind of dropped out." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

When a new SIM card was issued in California, the SIM card in her cellphone no longer worked, and should could no longer get a verification code to her phone, because the scammer was now using her phone number.

She needed to contact Verizon about her phone issues, but when she called Bank of America, she found out that $17,000 had been removed from her account.

She said:

"Initially, I didn't realize how big of a deal it was. I thought I had handled it on the first day by calling the bank, calling Verizon. Figuring things out.” -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

Hussey says that the "two-factor authentication" in her particular situation didn't help her.

She said:

"And I have two-factor identification which ended up biting me in the face when it all came down to it. That was the thing that completely hijacked everything. They had complete control of my phone and there was nothing I could do about it." -Sharon Hussey, Verizon customer

7News revealed that the scammer in this situation used two-factor authentication via receiving a text code to access accounts that have this feature enabled.

That's how the scammer gained access to Sharon Hussey's bank account.

In the video below on X.com (formerly Twitter) Sharon explains what happened.

Update to this Story: 24 January 2024

7News reported that Bank of America initially denied her claim for her $17K loss "over the next three months," but did reverse its decision, and decided to refund the money that was stolen from Sharon Hussey's account.

Thoughts

Now it is time for the reader to share your thoughts on the story.

• Did you know this type of SIM scam existed?
• What would you do if someone stole your phone number?
• Do you use two-factor authentication to protect your accounts?

Please help others stay informed about this story by sharing this article on social media.

Sources

Scott Taylor's account on X.com (formerly Twitter): @ScottTaylorTV

Sharon Hussey on Facebook.

Taylor, Scott. "Maryland woman loses $17K in SIM card swap scam despite two-factor authentication." WJLA 7News. 24 January 2024.

Bank of America's website.

Verizon's website.

$6,800 Taken from California Woman's Wells Fargo Bank Account Days After Receiving Fraudulent Phone Call

 In August 2023, Nadwa Perket received a phone call claiming to be from Wells Fargo. Days later, $6,800 was taken from her bank account and sent to Florida.

Wells Fargo bank (stock photo) by Mike Mozart; CC BY 2.0 DEED

A woman in her 60s from San Diego lost $6,800 from her Wells Fargo bank account after being tricked by a scammer who pretended to be a Wells Fargo bank employee. Nadwa Perket said she felt betrayed by the bank, which refused to reimburse her money.

California Woman Receives Scam Call and Loses Money from Bank Account

The U.S. Sun reported that Nadwa Perket from San Diego received a phone call in August 2023 from a man who claimed to be from the Wells Fargo fraud team. He told her that someone had tried to wire money to an account in Florida and that he needed to add extra security layers to her bank account.

Perket said the caller sounded very professional and convincing. She did not give him her password or username, but she did provide him with some personal information and a one-time access code that he requested.

A few days later, she got a notification on her phone that her account balance was low. She checked her account and found out that $6,800 had been withdrawn from her account.

Perket contacted Wells Fargo and reported the fraud, but the bank told her that "she had authorized the transaction" and that they would not refund her money. She said she was "shocked and angry that the bank did not protect her as a client."

She said:

"It didn't look fishy to them." -Nadwa Perket

She said she then had to borrow money just to pay her rent and that she felt like the bank did not care about her. 

Questions for the Readers

Now it is time for the reader to share your thoughts in the comments.

• Do you think that commercial banks care about their customers?
• Do you think they will take care of customers that are victims of fraud?
• Have you ever seen fraudulent charges on your debit or credit card?

Two Fake CIA Agents Scam South Carolina Woman out of $130K

Find out the statics of how many Americans are being scammed and exactly how these scammers fooled an SC woman into giving them all of her money.

Copyright-free; Pixabay

Americans are always falling for phone scams. Maybe it's because Americans are too trusting of random people that call them from unknown numbers. Regardless of who is calling, if you don't know them, don't take their phone calls and certainly don't trust them.

"Nearly 1 in 3 Americans say they've fallen victim to a phone scam in the past year." -2021 U.S. Spam & Scam Report

Scam Statistics from the 2021 U.S. Spam & Scam Report

If you want to see how many Americans are being scammed, these are real statistics obtained from the 2021 U.S. Spam & Scam Report:

• As many as 59.49M Americans (23%) report having lost money as a result of phone scams in the past 12 months — up from 56 million (22%) in 2020.
• 1 in 3 Americans (31%) report having ever fallen victim to phone scams, and 19% on more than one occasion.
• Of those who lost money to phone scams in the past 12 months:
• The money lost to scam calls in the past 12 months equates to an estimated 9.8 billion USD*.
• 59% of Americans have received scam calls and/or SMS in the past year.
• Robocallers duped 60% of these people.

Source: Truecaller & CNBC

A Phone Scam Shared by the Beaufort County Sheriff's Office

The Beaufort County Sheriff's Office released information pertaining to this scam from their official Facebook page. It reads:

"The scam started with a phone call at the end of June. The person on the other end claimed to be with Amazon and was inquiring about purchases made. The woman said she hadn't made any purchases. As a result, the person transferred the woman to "CIA Agent William Nelson".

The alleged agent texted the woman a photo of his credentials and proceeded to call and text her. In the communication with the alleged agent, she was told her social security number had been compromised and she was involved in payments to foreign nations.

She was advised to withdraw all of her money so that it could be put into "Federal Protective Custody".

Believing the scam, she first withdrew $30,000 and purchased gift cards as instructed. She then withdrew an additional $100,000 in cash.

The woman was instructed to meet with another alleged CIA agent at a Walmart in Hardeeville to deliver the gift cards and cash, which she did.

Should you believe you've been a victim of a scam, please report it to your local law enforcement agency."

Screenshot from Beaufort County Sheriff's Office

Red Flags in this Scam & Tip to End the Scam

Here are some obvious red flags in this scam:

• Amazon does not call people without you first contacting them and asking for a callback.
• No government agency (including CIA agents) would ever request cash
• It is clearly a scam if you are being asked to go to a local store (such as Walmart) and buy gift cards.

Scammers know that they can steal money easily if they can first gain your trust. They do this by pretending to be on your side.

They want to "protect" you from scammers, but they are secretly scamming you.

Many scammers have the mentality that if you are dumb enough to fall for their scam, then they are entitled to your money. This is how they justify it in their mind. However, it is still theft and wrong.

Tip: If you ever receive a call on your phone from someone claiming to be a representative of a company or a government official, you can always take down their name and identification number and give an excuse to get off the phone with them. Example: I have to go to the bathroom!

Next: Look up the real number of that company or government agency, and ask to speak with a real employee and validate the credentials of the person calling. Don't take any more calls from the scammer's number.

If that person doesn't exist, then you were almost the victim of a scam.

Photo by Clayton on Unsplash

Three General Tips to Avoid Phone Scams

Three general tips to help reduce the number of spam calls you receive.

• Block and report scam calls
• Let unknown calls go to voicemail
• Limit or be cautious when sharing your phone number

Source: CNBC

Sources

Beaufort County Sheriff's Office Facebook page

Leonhardt, Megan. "Americans lost $29.8 billion to phone scams alone over the past year." CNBC. 29 June 2022.

Morse, Ben. "Hilton Head woman loses $130,000 in scam involving fake CIA agent, sheriff's office says." Yahoo! News. 15 July 2022.

2021 U.S. Spam & Scam Report. Truecaller.

Dr. John Chan Cho Chak from Hong Kong PHISHING SCAM

Hong Kong

Received from: dr.johnchanchochak6@yahoo.com.hk

Dear Friend,

 I am Dr. John Chan Cho Chak, a member of Director of Operations of the Hang Seng Bank Ltd. I got your email from an Hong Kong online directory. I am getting in touch with you regarding the estate of a late customer and an investment placed under our banks management about 8 years ago.

I would ask that you keep the contents of this mail confidential,I am contacting you only and no other person is informed of my communication with you. In 2004,our late customer came to our bank to engage in business discussions with our private banking division.He informed us that he had a financial portfolio of large amount,which he wished to have us invest on his behalf. Based on my advice,we spun the money around various business opportunities and made attractive profits for our first months of operation,the accrued profit and interest stood at this point at millions in Dollars.In mid-2005, he instructed that the principal sum be liquidated because he needed to make an urgent investment requiring cash payments in Hong Kong.

We got in touch with a specialist department in my bank Hang Seng Bank who agreed to receive this money for a fee and make cash available to our late customer who`s name I must withhold for now.However I got a notification from my bank last year that this money has not been claimed.On further enquiries we found out that the said customer was involved in an accident, which means he died intestate. He has no next of kin and the reason I am writing you is because I want you to stand as the next of kin to our late customer.
What I propose is that since I have exclusive access to his file,you will be made the beneficiary of these funds. I know this might be a bit heavy for you, but please trust me on this. For all your troubles I propose that we shall share in the ratio of 65% for me, 30% for you and 5% will be used to pay back any money spent in the process of the transfer.In the banking circle this happens every time,the other option is that the money will revert back to the state and it will be confiscated by the Hong Kong Authority.  This is a lifetime opportunity for us, I hold the Key to these funds and as a Chinese National we see so much cash and funds being re-assigned daily. I would want us to keep communication for now strictly by the mail. The Full amount in question and further details as to what we shall be doing and your role to see the success of transferring the funds will be sent to you when you confirm your willingness to assist me. Please note I am a family man, I am married with children,I send you this mail not without a measure of fear as to the consequences,but I know within me that nothing ventured is nothing gained and that success and riches never come easy or on a platter of gold. This is the one truth I have learned from my private banking clients.

Do not betray my confidence.

If we can be of one accord, we should act swiftly on this. Please pardon my writing mistakes. Please get back to me immediately via mail as phone communication with me on the above matter will not be safe and language barrier.

Regards,
Dr. John Chan Cho Chak