TIFU by falling for a scam and losing over $1k

Submitted by Oddballxx124 t3_zuszb3 in tifu

TL,DR: Fell for a scam and cried about it.

Obligatory this wasn't today, but happened a few days ago.I was selling a used drawing tablet on a local website, when I got an inquiry for it. I had labelled the ad as "pick up only", and the potential buyer asked if they could use a courier service. Now, since this was the first time I was trying to sell something online, I wasn't aware of these scams, and said sure. I gave the person my email and I was sent an email with a link to the scam website. I looked up the company they were pretending to be, and saw it was an actual company, so I went along with it. I put in my details, and the website changed to look like my bank's website and asked for my access id and password. I assumed this was for me to prove I am who I am so the sale can happen and I can get my money.That was mistake one.Mistake two was repeatedly putting in my security code because the website asked me to. I then checked my bank balance to see if the money was deposited, and almost had a heart attack when I saw that all of my savings (what was left was roughly $6k) had been moved to my statement account, and I was missing almost $1.5k. I quickly called my bank and had my account frozen so they couldn't take any more of my money, and I now have to change everything in my account.I feel like an absolute dumbass for falling for this, but thankful I stopped the scammer from taking everything. I also feel extremely guilty because all the money I have and they stole was from a bank account my grandmother had made for me when I was born and was building up to give to me when I turned 18. My parents know and will help me sort out my account along with be with me when I call or go in to my local branch. It's not guaranteed that I'll get my money back, but this has been a valuable lesson to me about not blindly trusting some rando on the internet with the username Linda won't try to scam me out of everything I have.

Edit: Small update. Yesterday I called the bank for the 3rd time with my mum and stepdad with me to help find a solution and they had me do a virus/malware scan on my PC and had it have a factory reset to eliminate any potential problems the scan didn't detect. The lady on the phone also made a recall request, to see if I can have my money taken back from the people who took it. Today I went to the bank and had two new statement and savings accounts made and had the rest of the money I managed to save transferred into it, and once I get the response about the recall I can go back to the bank and have my former accounts closed completely.

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Feellikedancing t1_j1l7x6k wrote

Depending on where you live, banks will often give you back the money you lost to a scammer, especially if you follow up the loss with a police report. Worth enquiring about.

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Scoach3 t1_j1lc3x8 wrote

Replying to Feellikedancing (#1,051,593)

I've worked for 3 banks and 2 investments firms, scams are something you will almost never get back because they would have to give you their money to replace it and you gave away everything they needed to get to it.

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lemonpepsiking t1_j1lo5bp wrote

Worst case is if you can't get the money back it wasn't an overly expensive lesson.

Never trust anyone, always go with a route your familiar with or one that you initiated.

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ooooooooooooolivia t1_j1lu3kv wrote

Actually OP, you probably avoided the worst of it. With scams, having the foresight to only lose $1500 is a lot better than getting pilfered for everything.

In the future, realize that links sent over email are not secure. If you can get to a page through google, you probably should, and also obviously don't put bank account details into anything you didn't organize yourself.

If it makes you feel any better, scammers are usually miserable people, some of them actually wake up to that fact and flip the script on the business, there's actually a fair few content creators (especially in India) who were formerly working at scam centers and now try to expose the industry. Look up scam call vids, they're pretty fun to watch.

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Dagamoth t1_j1m7o65 wrote

If you want to scare away scammers when selling anything online just say - Cash Only.

They want to send their brother to pick it up after they send you a check? “Have your brother bring the cash”

Oh they need to connect their bank with you to send funds? “Just bring cash”

They’ll pay extra to use PayPal for “tax purposes”? - nope it’s cash only.

They can pay by money order? Great - go cash the money order and bring me cash.

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falcon_ziras t1_j1m98ay wrote

You got lucky. I handle fraud cases and got to talk to someone who wire transfered 150k in total because someone from amazon was assisting them with getting their money back from wrong orders. I can only sigh as theres nothing we can do.

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AllyBeth t1_j1mpm8v wrote

I know it won’t make you feel any better, but it does happen, even to people who know better. I’ve had very limited money this holiday (like, poor isn’t even the right word) and fell for someone claiming that I won 1,300 dollars. I knew it wasn’t real, but I was so excited at the idea of being able to have a Christmas that I stupidly agreed to give them 50 dollars that I didn’t even have in bitcoin. It sucks, but at the end of the day it is what it is.

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Agile-Bed7687 t1_j1mv2g0 wrote

Replying to DashRift (#1,052,220)

Yeah it is, where would the money come from? They would have to recover it because they aren’t going to comp you their own money. In the Case of a fraudulent charge the bank can recover from visa MasterCard etc through their insurance programs but a scam is not the same as fraud. When you give away access you give away your rights.

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Duality26 t1_j1nvjmv wrote

If you are in the states; and, if the money was transferred via ACH (not wire) the funds can be recovered under Regulation E. Make sure you check with your Bank to dispute the transactions and try to get the money back.

Good luck OP.

Edit: you state you are in Austrailia. Bummer. Ignore what I said.

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WilliamMinorsWords t1_j1nvndn wrote

Replying to Noidremained (#1,061,770)

Well, I'm actually glad to hear that there are banks or credit unions who will refund the money of their customers who get scammed. I think that's great.

I follow a lot of these scams, and usually the banks are like, "tough luck." So I'm really glad to hear there are some who don't say that.

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Duality26 t1_j1nvyj3 wrote

Replying to Scoach3 (#1,052,025)

This is wrong. Recent CFPB guidance and regulation e guidelines explicitly state that being the victim of a an account takeover is grounds for the transaction to be covered under the definition of an error, if the transaction is POS or ACH.

Liability for wires is different, however, as they are not covered under Reg e.

Anybody with Bank experience should note the criticality of regulatory definitions when trying to provide help.

Edit: OP is in Austraila, Reg E doesn't apply. Oof.

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Duality26 t1_j1nxz3i wrote

Replying to Agile-Bed7687 (#1,062,055)

In the US, EFTs initiated as a result of an account takeover are explicitly covered under Regulation E. The CFPB has published guidance and made it very clear these types of transactions are covered.

"4. Does an EFT initiated by a fraudster using stolen credentials meet the Regulation E definition of an unauthorized EFT?

Yes. As discussed in Electronic Fund Transfers Error Resolution: Unauthorized EFT Question 1, Regulation E defines an unauthorized EFT as a transfer from a consumer’s account initiated by a person other than the consumer without actual authority to initiate the transfer and from which the consumer receives no benefit. 12 CFR 1005.2(m)."

OP is in Austrailia so this is moot; however, if your experience in the financial industry is in the states, you are confidently incorrect.

However, other scams not involving an account takeover may not fall under the purview of Reg E, such as buying a gift card for the scammer; or, p2p transaction, which the CFPB will likely push consumer friendly guidance for in the next few years.

Source: I'm a certified regulatory compliance manager with 15 years banking experience.

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Oddballxx124 OP t1_j1oyvjp wrote

Replying to Duality26 (#1,062,902)

Luckily the bank I'm with does have insurance to cover unfortunate situations with people who have accounts with them. I previously had my account hacked and had all the money in my statement account taken out (I don't remember the amount but it wasn't as much as 1k), and they were able to give money back to the amount that was taken, but couldn't cover the online taxes, which I was completely fine with

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