Even the Pros are getting sucked in. Take the case of Michael Wilson, an experienced “crime” reporter for the New York Times. His story on the front page of The New York Times is pretty scary. Wilson is a crime “expert” but he almost got swindled by some crooks who called saying that they were from his bank (Chase) and that suspicious transfers were being made from his Zelle account to a person in Texas. Michael got in pretty deep and they almost got his money – $2100. He realized it was all a scam in the nick of time. A big “thank you” is owed to Wilson who had the guts to publish this story about falling for the scam.
We wanted to share this cautionary tale. These scams are coming at us non-stop and with the advent of A.I. they are getting more realistic and credible. I recently had my own experience. I was online and came across a video of Dr. Sanjay Gupta talking about Alzheimer’s Disease and a recently discovered “all natural” cure (some sort of exotic honey combined with a plant) that attacks all that bad plaque growing in the brain. Since I’m having lots of cognitive decline issues I watched the video until the end. I should have been suspicious – the video was really long and it was posted on Instagram. But I gave them my credit card anyway to try a 3 month trial of this magic potion that gets rid of Alzheimers Disease. But right away I started to feel uneasy so I googled “Is Dr. Sanjay Gupta promoting a plant based medicine for Alzheimers.” I got a the info immediately that Gupta had nothing to do with this supplement and that the whole thing was an A.I. fake. In the video he looked and sounded totally real. It was his voice and the voice matched the movements of his mouth perfectly. When I realized the mistake I made I called my bank immediately. I have to say the Bank of America was terrific. The charge had already come in but they could void it. They told me to cut up my credit card – they would send a new one – and warned me to be more aware of all the scams in the future. So be careful you don’t end up like me or the couple in the photo who are in shock looking at the charges on their credit card they never made.
Click HERE to read Michael Wilson’s story on The New York Times about his personal experience getting scammed. If it can happen to him it can happen to anyone.