In early May, 86-year-old Sandra Jung was on her computer when she suddenly saw a message claiming she had malware. Suspecting it was a scam, she looked up Microsoft’s number to verify.
When someone answered her call, they claimed Microsoft owed her a refund, and that’s when the trouble began.
“They said it was $150, but they had a new product and were going to refund $150,” Jung explained. When she tried to accept the refund, it appeared to credit her account with $15,000 instead of the $150. The man on the phone told her she needed to reverse the excess amount.
“He just said, ‘Oh no, this is awful. This is awful,’” Jung recalled. “He got so upset, saying he was in big trouble now.”
After some back and forth, the man convinced her to pay back nearly $10,000. Jung felt something was off but trusted the number she had found herself.
“I even said to him, ‘This seems like a scam,’ but I looked up the number. I called him. So how could this be a scam?” she said.
You might wonder how this happened. Cara Carlin from the Better Business Bureau explained that often the first numbers in Google search results for a company are ads and may not be legitimate.
“Often these fake listings are done through advertising,” Carlin said. “We recommend that consumers scroll past those ads and click on the actual website of the company they’re trying to contact.”
Unfortunately for Jung, it was too late. The money she planned to use for her partner’s care was gone. She emphasized the importance of reporting such scams.
“The most important thing is not to feel embarrassed and not to think you’ve got to keep it to yourself,” she said. “It’s better to have it be known.”
Jung has filed a report with the Attorney General’s office, but she hasn’t been able to recover her money.