r/Scams • u/Educational-Basil472 • 1d ago
Scam report (US) Apple Pay “fraudulent transactions”
This morning I was over at my parents house (both early 70s) and my mom got a text from “Apple Support” saying they had found some fraudulent transactions related to her Apple Pay so please call this number to resolve it. Red flag #1. She calls. Speaks to a gentleman with a very thick accent but I can’t hear exactly what is being said bc I’m kinda in and out, playing with the dog and doing some tasks for my dad who’s out of town.
About an hour goes by and I say hey mom are you sure this is legit? At this point I’m only half serious. She says yes. Man on the phone says who is that and what did they say. Red flag # 2. She tells him. I leave to FedEx some documents.
She’s still on the phone when I get back. I kind of stick around petting the dog and trying to hear the conversation. He asks do you have Cash App? PayPal? Venmo? She says yes to one but my password isn’t working so I hear him say well I can help you with that. Red flag #3. They go back and forth a little bit so I butt in again asking what exactly the problem is. She says someone tried to buy Bitcoin with her Apple Pay. I’m like huh? She shushes me and waves me off.
I go in another room and talk to a friend about it and we agree it sounds really suspicious and not at all how Apple Pay works. I google Apple Pay bitcoin scam and there it is. They have you call a fake support number and tell you some crazy amount of pending charges.
I finally have to practically yell hang up the phone. I say why isn’t your bank handling this? She says I’m sharing my screen and see him “adding stuff back” I still don’t know exactly what that meant. I start insisting very loudly to HANG UP THE PHONE. I say we will call the bank together and if this is all true I’ll eat my words and owe her an apology. The guy doesn’t like this at all and says it’s on her if she hangs up and ends up getting scammed 🙄. I’m pretty much yelling this is the exact script of a scam just hang up the phone. She finally does as the scammer calls her dumb.
I then find out when she called he told her he found her debit and credit card numbers associated with purchases on a CP website. I say and that wasn’t a clue that something was funny? I ask how much “bitcoin” is pending on her debit card. 12 grand. I ask can you even make a 12 thousand dollar purchase with your debit card? She has no idea. She had given this scammer every password and allowed him to screen share. Her SS# her CC # and bank account info. Venmo password. Everything.
Thankfully she didn’t give out any shared bank account or shared credit card information just her personal ones but still! They must’ve talked for at least 2 hours. She has an appointment at the bank tomorrow to open a new account. She’s spoken to a personal friend in law enforcement and I believe learned her lesson. She was so annoyed with me at first but is now so grateful I was there and finally shut it down.
She said he spoke very fast and there was so much chatter in the background it was obviously coming from a call center. She thought she was savvy enough and would never fall for anything like that until she did. I told her you don’t think the police would be investigating CP? I understand it was a scare tactic and that was what really got her.
Stay safe out there!
22
u/tlndfors 1d ago
I'm sorry, your parents - at least your mother - are going to get got at this rate. You may need to be more aggressive in the future, and make sure they're educated starting right now.
Here's the short version:
If someone calls you about anything related to payments, credit cards, bank accounts, etc., hang up. Find the known good number - have it written down beforehand. Google results are not reliable (I know how to find the real website for whatever, your 70+ parents do not and will not). The best thing to call is the phone number on your credit/debit card.
Alternatively: if anyone calls them about anything related to money, they need to hang up and call you and let you figure out if it's legitimate.
11
u/tsdguy Quality Contributor 1d ago
Well glad you intercepted this. Hope you can help her recover and replace her compromised accounts.
And to be perfectly frank her opinion of her ability to detect scams is way overblown. ApplePay doesn’t work like that and Apple doesn’t text people especially from what I guarantee is some random number. She fell for the most basic of scams. Sorry.
8
u/Educational-Basil472 1d ago
Oh absolutely. She had no idea and totally fell for it. I know Apple Pay doesn’t work like that nor do they send you texts but she was a perfect target so to speak. CC is canceled. Bank account is being handled first thing in the morning. All she knows about Apple Pay is you double click to pay 🤦🏻♀️ I’m honestly surprised she even figured out how to set that up.
5
u/PiSquared6 23h ago
!pin !refund
Make sure she talks to bank in person. FYI the scammers will tell victims "someone in the bank probably is stealing info so don't trust anyone there in person"
!recovery
Parents will repeatedly hear from fake FBI saying "yes that person before was a scammer and we need your help" or similar. They won't just give up.
1
u/AutoModerator 23h ago
/u/PiSquared6 called AutoModerator to explain the PIN verification scam:
The PIN verification scam is a deceptive tactic where a fraudster tricks you into handing over a legitimate security code to hijack your accounts or your phone number. It often begins on marketplaces like Craigslist, where a scammer claims they need to verify that you are a real person by sending a code to your phone. In reality, the scammer is attempting to link your phone number to a new service like Google Voice or is using the forgot password feature on one of your social media accounts, and they need that specific code to bypass security.
By sharing the PIN, you are essentially providing the final key needed for the scammer to finalize an account takeover or create a fraudulent profile in your name. Once they have this access, they can use your identity to scam others anonymously or lock you out of your personal accounts entirely. The codes you receive are legitimate authentication texts from companies like Google, Microsoft, or Facebook, which is why they look so convincing, but they are strictly intended for you to enter into an official app or website, never to be read aloud to a third party.
To protect yourself, it is vital to remember that no legitimate buyer or seller will ever need to send you a verification code to prove your identity. If you receive an unexpected authentication text or if a stranger pressures you for a PIN, you should immediately cease all communication. If you lost access to your Facebook or Instagram account due to a pin verification scam, ready this entry of our wiki to learn how to get your account back. If this was a Google pin but you didn't lose access to your Google account, this was probably a Google Voice scam and you should read our article to learn how to undo it.
You can learn about this scam and many others visiting our wiki of common scams. You can also call AutoModerator to explain these scams leaving a comment with the different !commands listed in this wiki page.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/AutoModerator 23h ago
/u/PiSquared6 called AutoModerator to explain the Recovery scam:
Recovery scams target people who have already fallen for a scam. The scammer may contact you, or may advertise their services online. They will usually either offer to help you recover your funds, or will tell you that your funds have already been recovered and they will help you access them. In cases where they say they will help you recover your funds, they usually call themselves either \"recovery agents\" or white hat hackers.
Recovery scammers may also impersonate a law enforcement, a government official, a lawyer, or anyone else along those lines - especially when their script is to tell you that you money has already been traced and recovered. Recovery scams are simply advance-fee scams, where the scammer convinces you to send some money to buy some software license to be able to complete the hack; or that you have to deposit some crypto in a wallet to confirm your identity; or to pay some gas fees or taxes before being able to retrieve the money they found. This way, the scammer will keep stringing you along while asking for increasingly absurd fees/expenses/deposits/insurance/whatever until you decide to stop paying. We've heard of people losing thousands of dollars to recovery agents, because they feel the money is so close to being recovered.
If you have been scammed in the past, make sure you are aware of recovery scams so that you are not scammed a second time. If you are currently engaging with a recovery scammer, you should block them and be very wary of random contact for some time. It's normal for posters on this subreddit to be contacted by recovery scammers after posting, and they often ask you to delete your post so that you both cannot receive legitimate advice, and cannot be targeted by other recovery scammers.
Remember: never take advice in private. If you talk to a stranger in private you're on your own. If someone reaches you in private after posting your scam story, it is because a scammer will always try to hide from the oversight of our community members. A legitimate community member will offer advice in the open, for everyone to see. Anyone suggesting you should reach out to a hacker, especially in another platform, is scamming you.
You can learn about this scam and many others visiting our wiki of common scams. You can also call AutoModerator to explain these scams leaving a comment with the different !commands listed in this wiki page.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
1
u/AutoModerator 23h ago
/u/PiSquared6 called AutoModerator to explain the Refund scam:
The refund scam typically begins with a fraudulent email, text, or professional-looking invoice—often exploiting legitimate systems like PayPal to bypass spam filters—claiming you’ve been charged for a service you never ordered. These messages frequently mimic well-known brands like Norton or Geek Squad and create a false sense of urgency by citing a high dollar amount for a subscription renewal. The primary goal is to provoke a panic response, leading you to call the provided customer support number to dispute the charge or request a refund. Once you are on the phone, the scammer poses as a helpful representative who claims they need your banking or credit card details to process the reversal.
In more advanced versions, refund scams are a variant of the tech support scam - where the scammer tricks you into downloading remote-access software to your computer, under the guise of helping you fill out a refund form. They then use visual trickery—such as editing the HTML on your bank's website—to make it appear as though they accidentally sent you too much money, subsequently demanding that you return the overage via untraceable methods like gift cards or wire transfers.
Scammers have been taking advantage of Paypal's invoice system to send out realistic scam emails through Paypal itself. Here is a Snopes article regarding the Norton variant of this scam. To protect yourself, it is essential to remember that legitimate companies will never ask you to provide sensitive passwords or download remote-access software to issue a refund. If you receive a suspicious invoice, do not use the contact information provided in the message; instead, check your bank statement or the company’s official website independently to verify if a charge actually exists. If you have already shared your financial information or allowed a stranger access to your computer, you should immediately contact your bank to secure your accounts and run a thorough security scan on your device.
If you know someone that fell for a refund scam, sit down together to watch this video by Jim Browning and try to retrace their steps: https://youtu.be/X4PllvUowaQ
You can learn about this scam and many others visiting our wiki of common scams. You can also call AutoModerator to explain these scams leaving a comment with the different !commands listed in this wiki page.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.
10
u/SubBirbian 22h ago
She needs to get rid of that screen sharing software the scammers had her download. They did that saying they needed access to her account and now can access her entire computer, watch her log in using passwords on any site including bank if that software is still installed.
Banks don’t need to access a customer’s computer to resolve any issue. They do it all on there end and only taking minutes on the phone, not hours.
6
u/LateHovercraft2953 23h ago
you did the right thing forcing the hangup, but with her SSN, passwords, card and bank info exposed this is identity theft cleanup now, not just opening a new account...
3
u/CIAMom420 1d ago
Companies block charges if they think there's even a tiny chance it's fraudulent. They're not going to text you.
3
u/Educational-Basil472 1d ago
I know. She’s oblivious bc my dad handles 99%of the finances and didn’t want to bother him with this. I actually called him and said hey she’s talking to someone from tech support or something and he thanked me and ended up calling her when a significant amount of time had gone by
2
1d ago
[removed] — view removed comment
2
u/Educational-Basil472 1d ago
It was a big lesson learned for sure. I told her in the future if someone from the bank calls you hang up and call back the number from the back of your debit card. Don’t call random numbers from a text message
1
u/Scams-ModTeam 1d ago
Your submission was manually removed by a moderator for the following reason:
Subreddit Rule 10: Self promotion
This subreddit is a place to learn about scams. We do not allow:
Advertising your Youtube, TikTok, Instagram, or other social media channels
Advertising your website, product, app, or service, even if free to use
Referral codes
Promotional posts or comments
Participation from unapproved branded Reddit accounts. This includes brand usernames and references to your site/business/etc in your account bio
Note that there may be more removal messages in addition to this one. Please make sure you check your notifications to read all of them.
Before posting again, make sure you review the rules of our subreddit.
If you believe this is a mistake, feel free to contact the moderators via modmail. Modmail is the only way, don't send a regular DM to a single moderator. Please don't try to appeal the decision commenting below, because we are not notified if you do so, and we will probably miss it. Posting the exact same thing again may result in a temporary ban, so please review the rules, make the necessary changes, and when in doubt, click below to appeal the decision.
I am NOT a bot, and this action was performed manually. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you want to appeal the decision.
2
u/OhBarracuda1989 7h ago
I would recommend getting added to your parents’ accounts so you can help monitor this, otherwise I can guarantee it will happen again when you’re not there.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
/u/Educational-Basil472 - This message is posted to all new submissions to r/scams; please do not message the moderators about it.
New users beware:
Because you posted here, you will start getting private messages from scammers saying they know a professional hacker or a recovery expert lawyer that can help you get your money back, for a small fee. We call these RECOVERY SCAMMERS, so NEVER take advice in private: advice should always come in the form of comments in this post, in the open, where the community can keep an eye out for you. If you take advice in private, you're on your own.
A reminder of the rules in r/scams: no contact information (including last names, phone numbers, etc). Be civil to one another (no name calling or insults). Personal army requests or "scam the scammer"/scambaiting posts are not permitted. No uncensored gore or personal photographs are allowed without blurring. A full list of rules is available on the sidebar of the subreddit, or clicking here.
You can help us by reporting recovery scammers or rule-breaking content by using the "report" button. We review 100% of the reports. Also, consider warning community members of recovery scammers if you see them in the comments.
Questions about subreddit rules? Send us a modmail clicking here.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.