In the end, she bought $16,000 worth of gift cards that she never saw again. He explained that he would pay the scammers off and then pay her back.īut of course, those other scammers never existed - the man on the line was the scammer. Instead of talking to a helpful representative, the man who answered insisted that scammers were 'getting into her pension and savings.” To prevent more fraudulent activity, he said she had to go to Target and load gift cards worth $500 each. Panic-stricken, she called it hoping to report fraud right away. But she hadn’t bought those items.Ĭonveniently, the email also listed a customer service number. What looked like an order confirmation for an expensive laptop and camera should not have alarmed her. A North Carolina woman was startled to receive an email in March, 2021 that appeared to be from Amazon.