Fake Facebook Support: Sandra’s Story
Connecting with a fake Facebook support agent led to a terrifying ordeal with threats of prison if Sandra didn’t comply.
This story is part of Operation Shamrock’s Survivor Stories series.
Sandra knew it might be a scam. She was, in her own words, driving around town literally stealing money from herself. It all seemed a little sketchy, but she and her husband were completely terrified by the potential that they’d found themselves in a legitimate crisis. So they ignored the little voices in the backs of their minds and kept doing what they needed to do to get out of trouble.
“The scammers told her a $16,000 purchase of child pornography had been made from her account — and she could be prosecuted if she didn’t work with them to clear her name.”
It all started when the community college Sandra worked for asked her to manage their social media accounts. Sandra, an adjunct professor who taught writers and trained writing tutors, was looking for ways to supplement her income and agreed to take on the new work.
There was just one problem. Sandra’s seldom-used Facebook account was locked, and she couldn’t log in. Without her own Facebook account, she couldn’t access the school’s account. So she did the same thing everyone does when they need assistance: She Googled “Facebook tech support.” She found a couple of websites that looked legitimate, picked one, and called the 800 number.
The Fake Facebook Support Agent Connects
The “Facebook” agent Sandra reached was a scammer. He said he could see that her account was hacked and that an investigation was necessary. She downloaded a program onto her work laptop so the agent could “investigate the network.”
After just a few seconds, the investigator audibly gasped. He told Sandra her entire network had been hacked. She was being listened to and watched. Her identity had been compromised and involved in a felony. That’s why her Facebook account was inaccessible.
Sandra didn’t exactly know what any of this meant, but she certainly knew it wasn’t good. For all she knew, her “network” really had been hacked and her identity compromised. When the investigating agent advised her to take out her bank card and call the number on the back, she thought that was a pretty good idea. So that’s exactly what she did.
The Next Level: Fake Bank and Treasury Agents
Sandra doesn’t know exactly how it happened, but her call didn’t actually go to her bank. It instead was routed to scammers impersonating her bank. She asked for fraud tech support and was redirected to someone who told her a $16,000 purchase of Russian child pornography had been made from her account. The banker added “a member of the U.S. Treasury” to the call to help further resolve the issue.
The fake Treasury agent told Sandra she had two options. She could hire a lawyer to protest her innocence, which would result in a court battle and all of her accounts being frozen for the next six months. Or she could work with the U.S. Treasury Department because he understood she’d unwittingly been hacked. Panicked, Sandra went home and told her husband everything that had happened. The law-abiding couple, who were certain they hadn’t intentionally done anything wrong, agreed that Sandra needed to cooperate with the Treasury Department.
“I was weaponized against myself.”
The Scammer Provides a “Solution”
Sandra called the scammer posing as a Treasury agent. He informed her that she and her husband needed to move all of their funds under the auspices of the Treasury. Once they cooperated, the Federal Trade Commission would reinstate their accounts and provide them with new, clean Social Security numbers. He warned them that if they didn’t comply fully, they would be prosecuted and found guilty of money laundering.
If that all sounds scary and confusing to you, then you know how Sandra felt. She and her husband had just received inheritances, and they were worried they’d lose these new funds. Sandra didn’t know anything about money laundering, network security, or the U.S. Treasury. She just wanted to clear up the issue as fast as she could and get back to tutoring students at her college.
The Victims Move their Money
Over the next three weeks, Sandra and her husband removed $300,000 — their accumulated life savings — from accounts at multiple banks and put the money into Bitcoin ATMs $1,000 at a time. The Treasury agent gave them QR codes and alternative phone numbers to use to get around the $1,000 daily limit on the kiosks.
The fraudulent bank and U.S. Treasury representatives were in constant contact with Sandra. “I was weaponized against myself,” she said. On the handful of occasions where she wavered, they yelled at her, told her she was complicit in money laundering, and would be prosecuted with the full force of the United States government. She was scared and confused. Looking back, Sandra says it’s obvious that the scammers were incredibly well rehearsed. Their voices carried so much authority. They played their roles like Hollywood stars.
The Warning Comes Too Late
The ironic shame of Sandra’s story is that a few weeks after her last Bitcoin deposit, her employer provided training about these kinds of scams. Had the hackers found her a couple months later, she might have reacted differently. Absent that educational seminar, though, Sandra fell victim to the same high-pressure psychological manipulation that works against so many victims.
There’s a very simple reason scammers use an approach like this: It works. It works often. And it works even with smart, educated people like Sandra, who you’d never think would be a scam victim. Sandra’s fear took over, her flight or fight defenses triggered, and she deferred to an authority figure who promised to guide safely her out of this traumatic scenario.
Stories like Sandra’s are the reason that the first goal of Operation Shamrock is to educate. The more people know about these scams and the high-pressure psychological tactics they employ, the less successful the scammers will be. Talk to the people in your life about scams. The only way we turn the tide against this scourge is by working together.
Do you have a survivor story? Connect with our team to share your experience.
