It *Seemed* Like the Electric Company: 5 Smart Women on How They Got Scammed

True fact: The day I sat down to write this story, I got an email saying my PayPal account had been used pay a $1,299 invoice at Apple Store Dadeland. Luckily, there was an 800 number to call in case I didn’t recognize the charge…which I’d better take care of right away by calling the number, right?

Wrong. Dead wrong. Since I’d been reporting on scam stories for the past few weeks and had actually been scammed myself not so long ago (more on this later), I recognized this as a phishing attempt—that’s a scam that uses an email message to lure you into engaging with the scammers by calling a number or clicking a link. Before scamming was so widespread—text scams alone fleeced Americans for $300 million in 2022, according to the Federal Trade Commission—I might have engaged. Instead, I scanned my checking account to see if any large or unknown purchases had been posted (nope) and I did a cursory Google search for “PayPal scam” (there are many), and then sailed on with my day. Still, that was 20 minutes of my life I’m never getting back, alongside a a stomach-drop moment of fear that I’d just lost $1,299.

Bottom line. It’s not just me and it’s not just you. When the nation’s paper of record writes a story entitled “Welcome to Scam World” and a financial columnist goes viral for handing fraudsters $50,000 in cash, we’re all fair game. So, in the spirit of forewarned is forearmed, I wanted to share my personal story as well as the experiences of others. We are all smart women. We all thought it couldn’t have been us. I do this not to rubber-neck at others’ financial accidents (well, maybe a little), but mostly in the hopes that we’ll all learn to be more cautious.

What Happened: My New Year’s resolution was to clean out my closet and sell items I didn’t want any longer on Poshmark, which has such a cute interface and cool clothes. I carefully curated and photographed a whole spring-themed story and, after lots of prep, I went live. One of the fellow vendors DM-ed to purchase a silk heart-printed Italian dress I’d listed and explained that they wanted to buy this dress quickly, before another vendor could swoop in, but that they needed more photos. I felt so seen—someone liked my dress and I was going to make money! I emailed them the photos and they emailed me back saying they were trying to post payment but it wasn’t working—maybe I hadn’t been fully been verified by the platform? No worries; I should expect a Poshmark form via email to enter my correct account information so I could get paid. Turns out, that form was mocked up by the scammer to look like it was from Poshmark, and after I filled it out and sent it back, the scammers made fraudulent charges. To the tune of $500. I had to cancel that card and shut down my whole Poshmark account.

What I Learned: When platforms say that all transactions and communication should occur in the app, they mean it. Everything. If someone asks for more pictures or needs clarification, post all that right in the app’s chat, or forego the sale.

What Happened: I was caught up in one of my company’s phishing attacks! Our CEO, who I just happened to be working on a project with, texted me to ask a favor. He used his first name, called me by my name and said, casually, ‘Hey I have a task for you to complete. I am pulling together a project that includes a bunch of gift cards, but I have depleted the ones around my home and since you are based in another area, could you pick two up for me?’ My first thought was, isn’t there an assistant who can handle this? But since I am based in another town, I thought, oh okay. So…I ran out to Walmart, bought a $500 gift card, and sent him the number on the reverse as directed.

Still, the moment I pushed send I thought uh-oh, this seems fishy. So I called a colleague and she confirmed: that wasn’t a company number and, in fact, I had been scammed.

What I Learned: While it may not scar me for life, it’s embarrassing! In the future, I’m not going to pick up the phone or respond to a text when I don’t recognize the number.

What Happened: I know I seem like the demographic who would get scammed, since I’m older, but really I’m cynical and believe that everything is a scam! What happened was that one day at about 6:30 I was home from work when I got a call from the electric company asking to confirm my address. They had my address right and a man—who spoke politely, I might add—said that there was a truck on its way to turn off the service for nonpayment because, for the past two months, the bill (which totaled $400) had not been paid. I consulted my check ledger and saw that I hadn’t written any checks to them in the past two months. I offered to pay right then, but he said that since the office was closed, they couldn’t process credit cards. But, he said, if I Venmo’d him the $400, he could stop the guy from turning the service off. He explained how to do it, which I did, then asked me to also pay the $45 service charge. When Venmo wouldn’t let me do that, I started panicking and told my husband, who said ‘What, are you crazy, hang up!’

What I Learned: I wish I had run it by my spouse right away, because it turns out we had switched to automatic payments, which is why I didn’t see the records in my checkbook. Overall, it was a good reminder that you might think you are a savvy person, but you cannot let your guard down ever. Especially at that time; I was so tired that day and I remember thinking, I just can’t take the electricity going off right now. Also, I'm no longer picking up my phone for unidentified numbers!

What Happened: Someone emailed me pretending to be my deceased mother-in-law’s best friend and asked for help buying gift cards for her grandchildren. Of course I wanted to help an 84-year-old widow! Then they asked me to email the code on the back of the card and not send the actual card. I felt like such an idiot falling for it!

What I Learned: When people die, their email histories can be exploited for fraud.

What Happened: I was so excited to see on Instagram that the recently released $200 New Balance sneakers with a wedge were on flash sale for $80. I clicked through and paid for them, then promptly forgot about the purchase with the day-to-day of being a single mom. Then, a few weeks later I noticed some small charges being posted to my account from China. And I also remembered, hey, where are those shoes I ordered? I promptly reported the fraud and had to cancel that credit card.

What I Learned: If a sale seems to be too good to be true, or I don’t recognize a vendor, better to skip it.