Missouri woman tells her tech support scam story

ST. LOUIS — It only took two phone calls and 20 minutes, but that’s how speedily Vivian Fox finished up in the middle of a tech help rip-off with about $1,600 absent in advance of she could do everything about it.

“I just stored observing my account go down, down, and nothing at all likely again. And then that is when I obtained this intestine-punch sensation in my abdomen,” she claimed. “A thing is not correct.”

Fox said she was the focus on of a tech aid rip-off by a person who claimed to be calling from Apple. They understood her title and her Apple ID. She gave them some monetary information and facts and watched as the funds drained out of her account: 16 withdrawals at $99 every.

“I’m so humiliated. You do not wanna convey to,” she mentioned.

But she did inform. She identified as the police.

“Awareness is the critical to prevention,” FBI Asst. Exclusive Agent Joshua Morrill claimed at a Wednesday panel at the St. Louis FBI business.

Morrill joined Fox to highlight tech assistance ripoffs, the top rated economical fraud described for People in america over 60 many years of age, on Environment Elder Abuse Awareness Day.

Pursuing their presentations, the group headed to the edge of the FBI house, putting 273 purple pinwheels in the grass every single one particular representing 10 men and women afflicted by ripoffs in the St. Louis place last 12 months.

Even while she acquired her revenue back again, Fox reported she is continue to having difficulties with the psychological destruction.

“It can make me skeptical that who can you have confidence in? You won’t be able to rely on any individual,” she said, hoping other folks will now show the identical stage of scrutiny without studying the hard way.

“Do not have confidence in anybody you you should not know,” she explained. 

If you suspect you or a cherished one has been the goal of elder abuse, call 1-800-392-0210 or stop by the Missouri Dept. of Health and fitness and Senior Expert services site.