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 stealing money from herself. It all seemed a little sketchy, but she and her husband were terrified that they’d found themselves in a legitimate crisis. So they ignored the 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 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. So she did the same thing many people do 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
The support agent Sandra reached was a scammer. He said he could see that her account was hacked and that an investigation was necessary. He had her download a program onto her work laptop so he could “investigate the network.”
He told Sandra her entire network had been hacked. She was being listened to and watched. Her identity had been compromised and she was now 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. 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 she did.
The Fake Bank and Treasury Agents
Sandra doesn’t know exactly how, but her call didn’t go to her bank. It 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 the freezing of all her accounts for the next six months. Or she could work with the U.S. Treasury Department because he understood she’d been hacked. Panicked, Sandra went home and told her husband everything that had happened. Certain they hadn’t intentionally done anything wrong, they agreed to cooperate with the Treasury Department.
“I was weaponized against myself.”
The Scammer Provides a “Solution”
Sandra called the “Treasury agent.” He instructed them to move all of their funds to an account with the Treasury for protection. Once they cooperated, the Federal Trade Commission would reinstate their accounts and give them new, clean Social Security numbers. He also warned them that if they didn’t comply fully, they would be prosecuted and found guilty of money laundering.
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.
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 deposited the money into Bitcoin ATMs $1,000 at a time. The Treasury agent gave them QR codes and alternative phone numbers to bypass 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. When she wavered, they yelled at her, told her she was complicit in money laundering, and would be prosecuted with the full force of the 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.
The Warning Comes Too Late
A few weeks after her last Bitcoin deposit, her employer provided training about these kinds of scams. Had the hackers found her a couple of months later, she might have reacted differently. Absent that educational seminar, Sandra fell victim to the same high-pressure psychological manipulation that works against so many victims.
There’s a simple reason scammers use an approach like this: It works. And it works with people like Sandra, who you’d never think would be a scam victim. Sandra’s fear took over, her fight or flight defenses triggered, and she deferred to an authority figure who promised to guide her safely out of this traumatic scenario.
Stories like these 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.
Do you have a survivor story? Connect with our team to share your experience.
