WARNING - A NEW TYPE OF SCAM: We experienced a new type of scam when a woman with a local area code called at 8:53 this morning to tell us that someone in Florida was attempting to withdraw $11,000 from our bank's checking account. The whole thing at first "sounded" legit, as she never asked for our bank account or social security numbers, or anything.
She told us the fraud attempt had been stopped, but that there would be an FBI investigation on "an African American woman" the FBI has been keeping an eye on, and that we should immediately go to our bank to report it.
She told us she was turning us over to the security manager - a man, who then also began to warn us to head for our bank while he stayed on the line with us so that they could "verify us via the bank's security cameras." We began to get suspicious when he asked us our approximate "estimated time of arrival," and kept talking to us until we arrived at the bank, and started talking to a bank employee - at which point, the “security manager “promptly hung up!
While we were speaking to a bank manager who was checking our account (and assuring us that the bank had had no notification of any fraud attempt), we noticed that our Ring Doorbell had given us a notification of a slim Hispanic woman with long black hair tied in a ponytail, wearing dark sunglasses and dressed in black shorts and and gray and black patterned hoodie, approaching our front door at exactly 9:11 a.m. carrying her cellphone, with something attached to it that resembled a microphone.
The moment she saw the Ring Doorbell, she did an instant "about-face" and hurried back to her car!
That is when it became crystal clear to us that this particular scam was apparently orchestrated to get us OUT OF OUR HOUSE, to allow the scammers time to break in... which is why the fake "security manager" had wanted to stay on the line with us until we arrived at the bank.
Anyway, the bank manager suggested save the Ring video and report the whole incident in person to the police station, which we did. Unfortunately, we were told by the police station receptionist that there was nothing they could do as there had been no actual crime committed.
Clearly, there had been A CRIME ATTEMPT – and we have saved the video, in case we hear of others in our area with the same story, so we can put these criminals away! Surely, this scam isn’t just local, and so I wanted to warn everyone to be on the lookout for this “new scam.”
In the meantime, I want to remind everyone to NEVER, EVER give out personal or banking information to ANYONE who calls you on the phone, no matter how “legitimate” they might sound. There are EVIL people out there, who have no regard for anyone except themselves, and they will do whatever it takes to talk you out of your money or possessions!
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