Refund and Recovery Scams

Cybercrime is on the rise, and cybercriminals are becoming more savvy and sophisticated in how they scam victims.  Through phishing, malware, or security breaches, there are multiple ways that scammers obtain access to phones and computers, or have victims pay them money.

Once you realize you have been scammed and have lost money, now what? If you have ever seen a friend or colleague post on social media that they were scammed, or had their profile/account hacked, you will doubtless start to see comments from people saying how they, or somebody they know can help you the funds back.

Those are refund and recovery scammers, looking to scam you from even more money.

How the Scam Works

There are multiple ways in which scammers trick you into paying them.  No matter how you were scammed, the fact is that you have been scammed and have lost money.

Scammers look for scam victims, either by using keywords on social media and looking for posts mentioning keywords relating to being scammed, or they obtain your information from a list obtained from other scammers. Scammers have databases and lists that they sell, about who was scammed and how.

The recovery and refund scammers will begin to contact you, either as a recovery expert or even as a police officer, lawyer, financial institution,  government official, etc.

The secondary scam is that they will either ask for money for their services, or they will ask you for your financial and personal information under the pretense that they need it to put your recovered money back into your account.   They will either take the fee and disappear or with your information and bank details, take even more money and have the ability to steal your identity.

How to Recognize and Avoid the Scam

The big sign is that they want money upfront to help you recover your money. They frequently use well-known organizations like the FTC, or government or police agencies to impersonate and none of these organizations would charge you to recover your money. If they do, it is a scam.

Scammers usually guarantee that they will recover your money. If it sounds too good to be true, it usually is.  There is never a concrete guarantee that you will recover your money and if they say there is, it is a scammer.

• Never send money upfront
• Be suspicious of calls, texts, emails, and social media posts that offer to help return and recover funds regarding scams
• Never deposit any check for more money that you lost. Another trick that scammers will use is that they send a check with your “recovered money” but accidentally send more than they should and ask you to send the difference back.   This is a scam that is widely used for online selling as well.
• Look up any company or organization that contacts you regarding any scam. Never call from the number that they give you, always look up the company online and make sure you call them that way vs whatever number was given in the letter/text/email/post.

Unfortunately, scams are common these days.  When you see a scam, you can report it to the FTC or the State Attorney General.

In terms of protecting your business, at Fixated Financial & Insurance Solutions we have multiple options for Cyber Liability insurance.  We can tailor coverage options to match your exact business needs.  Many of them also provide security tools to help prevent fraud before it happens.  Contact Laura Ruetz at [email protected] or Veronica Melgoza at [email protected] for more information or to get a no-obligation cyber quote.

Photo by Markus Winkler