The Widder Curry: ‘Almost Fell for It — Again!’

By Judi Curry

Have been under the weather lately.  Losing my sight in the “good eye” and only have slight peripheral vision in that eye so have not been paying much attention to things going on around me.  Until this past weekend, when I had, excuse the pun, a real “eye opener.”

I got a message that $98.99 had been paid from my Venmo account to a woman whose name I didn’t recognize – Amiyah Parker – for Crypto currency and that amount would be paid to the very same woman every month.

I didn’t know this woman and I knew that I didn’t have a Venmo account, and I knew I did not buy any Crypto currency — but I did remember that I had sent money to a dog breeder for a dog several years ago on a Venmo account that turned out to be a scam.  I decided I had better check into the Venmo account to make sure monies had not been taken from my account so……

This message was on the report I received about purchasing the Crypto currency:

“Amiyah Parker requests $98.99 – You paid $98.99 USD for Crypto Currency using Venmo. This amount will be auto deducted every month. If this is not authorized by you, Call Venmo Customer Service to cancel at +1 (855) 611_3630 . (Toll Free). Do not reply , Replying to this mail will confirm the order.”

That message alerted me that this must be a scam, so I was not going to use the phone number in the email.  No. Smart me was going to go to Google and get a different phone number for Venmo and call it.

And I did and guess what? That number was a scam too!  And thank goodness my Japanese foreign language student was sitting next to me as I was going through the steps to “erase” this information, because He was the one that realized I was still being scammed!  Thank you, Yoshiki, for showing me, on your phone, the word “FRAUD” because even though I had funny feelings about the conversation, I was continuing with it.

I called the number I found in Google.  I explained that I had been scammed, and the person I spoke to told me he found my account and that I had two Venmo accounts; one was with Bank of America and he couldn’t quite make out the second one. Dumb me readily gave him the name of the second place. He asked me if I was using an Apple phone or an Android and when I told him, he told me to go to the App Store and put in this program.  He said with the use of the program and what he was going to tell me, we would wipe out the Venmo scam immediately.

So….like a jerk, I went to the site and had trouble getting it on my phone.  He had me erase it 3 times and reinstall it 3 times.  Meanwhile, my student was listening to this!  When I finally got it installed, he told me to go to my on-line account, and open it up. And this is where Yoshiki told me it was a fraud; and when, thank goodness, I tried to open my account I was wearing glasses and it did not recognize my facial impression and did not accept my request to open the account.  And it was at that point that I knew Yoshiki was correct… and I erased the name of the account the scammer told me to put on my phone.

I immediately called my bank and told them what happened and the man I spoke to was extremely helpful, from suggesting I change my password – which I did – to something I never thought of before.

I have always had my password for my account saved. He told me not to do that. He said if the scammer got onto the page, he could get into my account so easy because the account password was already there.  I never thought of that before, but it certainly is logical.  I did not have the computer remember the new password. (I hope I remember it!  And yes, I did write it down!)

I can only hope that I did not give the man too much information. I think that Yoshiki stopped me before it was too late. But I hope that I have learned my lesson – even to the point of obtaining a legitimate phone number on Google. It truly is an unsafe state of affairs that we are living in today.  Please, please, please, be careful.