Pinellas County woman loses $5,000 to phone scammer
CLEARWATER, Fla. - "Belinda" from Pinellas County doesn't want anyone else in the same boat she is in. She was scammed out of thousands of dollars and has zero hope of ever getting it back.
"These people are out there phishing all the time," she explained.
Belinda runs her own cleaning company and a couple of days ago she took a strange call.
"The person on the other end had an Indian accent. He said he was calling from Apple; there was some alert," she recalled.
That should've been the first red flag. However, she says the scammers caught her at a moment of mental exhaustion and she went along.
"He said the way to correct this is for me to put x amount of money in...by buying cards from Target.
And despite another red flag, she put in $5,000.
"That’s what burned me more than anything, my physical labor, the sweat, the integrity that I've built they took that away," she said.
Scams like this one are very common. Experts say the first line of defense is your caller ID. Simply don't answer a call you don’t recognize. Also, if you hear the words "gift cards," watch out.
"Banks are not going to call you. Apple is not going to call you. Amazon is not going to call you. None of these reputable companies are going to call. If you hear that, just hang up," said Rob Shaw, public information officer with the Clearwater Police Department.
And if something seems fishy, call the police first because one small mistake can lead to a big financial disaster.
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