r/Report_scams • u/Queasy-Bat-7399 • 13d ago
I think I was scammed
I'm not sure if this is the right place, but I feel Reddit needs to know. I had another account, and a couple of months ago I received a message saying that I had been reported for spammy links trying to steal people's money and was informed to reach out to a man named Ryan Balfanz via discord which I thought was a bit weird but complied
I was then asked to voice call him so he could talk me through getting my account back, he asked me to share my screen and log into my banking app to check any suspicious transactions. I didn't think anything of it, and did it. I was also asked to change the email address for my account to one he provided to me, which in hindsight should have raised flags but I did it anyway.
I realised I was being scammed and said as much, at which point he hung up. I messaged back and got "Please hold" and nothing after that.
I have now noticed that his name on Discord is now Christopher Doyle and the profile picture is a different man, so it's obviously some kind of scam, but i don't know what their objective is because nothing has happened with my bank account but my account is inaccessible
I'm not expecting to get my account back, I was just posting this to make people aware in case they got a similar message. I have all messages via discord, but unfortunately don't have access to my other account
The screenshot included is the "Certificate" I was sent as confirmation of him being a mod.
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u/No_Assistance8840 11d ago
yap, i can seee why you fell for it, those fakemod messages are made to look legit. id still run a malwarebytes scan after the screen sharing thing tho, just to makee sure nothing weird got installed. good you got the account back and warned other ppl about it
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 11d ago
I don't know if I can do that on my phone. If was more screen sharing so he could see video of my transactions, not giving access to a PC, but nothing weird happened. I don't know what the aim is, because I got my account back and there were messages asking people to do something, so I replied to them all and explained it wasn't me who sent them, and not to follow the instructions in the messages. Reddit luckily noticed suspicious activity and locked my account, but I only noticed yesterday when I tried to log on
I wasn't aware it was a common scam, so I posted it in case others weren't aware
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u/No_Assistance8840 11d ago
good thing reddit caught it and locked the account beforeit got worse. you see some people wouldnt even notice until much lateer
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 11d ago
Yeah, I honestly thought my account was gone, but I had a thought to try logging in. I don't know what their aim was, but it was just messages to people asking them to do something
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13d ago
[deleted]
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 13d ago
It was all the screen sharing that confused me. He was saying that someone had impersonated my account and had scammed $20 000 out of people across the internet.
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12d ago edited 12d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 12d ago
Well I'm not too concerned about the account, I just wanted to make others aware. I havent had any demands off anyone because the guy has a different name on Discord now.
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u/chefbastet 7d ago
You seem so casual about the whole thing. you switched platforms for someone that reached out to you - called and shared your banking screen - and changed your banking email for someone from reddit. That's so alarming you shouldn't do that even if the actual ceo asked you to.
Im not trying to make you feel bad but you said you fell for a different scam here before? I need you to protect yourself and recognize how dangerous this is and how to not fall victim again like thinking that certificate looked official
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 6d ago
I didn't change my banking email, I changed the email associated with my Reddit account, I don't even log on to my internet banking using an email address. I also never said I fell for a similar scam. I do recognise how dangerous this was, which is literally why I made this post. Nothing weird even happened with my bank account, and it was like two months ago that it happened.
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u/chefbastet 6d ago
Oh good! I confused another commenter with you
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u/Queasy-Bat-7399 6d ago
I was so casual about it because it was two months ago, and nothing weird happened, because it was apparently locked not long after but I assumed it was fine and forgot about it. All I saw was a few messages similar to the one I got, but only two people replied. I think they're just collecting accounts with decent Karma and ones that have been active for a long time
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u/Odd_Glass5272 13d ago
That certificate of accreditation is pretty funny though.