SOUTH EUCLID, Ohio — Police and cyber experts warn of scams as the holiday season nears.
Online scammers are targeting people all over Northeast Ohio. One South Euclid woman got scammed out of $23,000.
According to a South Euclid Police report, it all started with an e-mail from Discover Card.
The e-mail informed the 76-year-old woman that her social security number was on the dark web. The victim told investigators she Googled "Lifelock," with whom she had an account.
She selected the first entry on the Google search, which provided her with a customer service number.
“So, there's something called Search Engine poisoning," said Cyber expert Alex Hamerstone.
"If you look at how search engines work, the top results are usually paid ads."
Hamerstone told News 5 oftentimes, those ads are harmless.
"But criminals know that they can also purchase those ads, create a fake-site, show up in the search results, and then people will click that."
Hamerstone said it's hard to know which link is correct, but he advises people to always look at the website that the link connects with.
"Either by hovering over the link before you click it or looking at what opens in your browser. But even that can be challenging too, just because companies will use multiple domains or multiple website names so they can kind of track where somebody came from," said Hamerstone. "Additionally, it's really easy to come up with fake website names that look authentic, you know, either by replacing a zero in the name with a one with a with the letter "O" or vice versa, or even using, you know, other alphabets, with similar looking letters."
Hamerstone says scammers are also able to purchase a domain name that is similar to a well-known or large company, then use that to host a fake website with a fake number you can dial.
"Then they'll report to be a customer service rep from there and ask you for information," said Hamerstone.
That is what happened in this case.
It was used to send the victim to a fake "Lifelock" webpage and a fake customer representative, who told the victim there was a request made on the dark web to transfer $23,000 from her bank account. She was eventually transferred to what she thought was a fraud expert at Flagstar Bank, where her account was held.
The fraud expert gave her two options. She could place the money in a Crypto account, or she could turn it over to an "undercover FBI agent."
According to the police report, she chose to hand it to the agent.
“If somebody asks you ever to physically take out money. That's a scam," said Hamerstone.
He also mentioned that crypto is another red flag.
The victim told police she withdrew the money from three banks and then met a man who claimed to be an "FBI agent" in the parking lot of a Starbucks on Mayfield Road.
She gave him a security code and handed him an Amazon box containing the $23,000.
The victim said she was supposed to get an email the next day with information on her new account containing her money, but that e-mail never came.
“This is a kind of a whole other level of scam," said Hamerstone. "Once you start getting to the point where you're meeting the scammer in person. That's a whole different type of crime....this is much more extensive than we usually see.”
Hamerstone says there is also a difference between a scam and a fraud, which could determine whether the bank will cover your loss.
"The simple way to think about it is, if you're trying to take my money and you guess my password and break into my bank account and transfer the money to yourself, that's fraud, right? And I'm generally not liable," said Hamerstone. "If you call me and trick me in whatever way you trick me, and I'm the one that presses the button to send that money, then I've been scammed, and the bank is generally not liable."
And that may be the case here.
According to the South Euclid Police report, the victim filed a claim with her bank, but because she willingly withdrew the money herself, the bank may not have to cover the loss— leaving her without the money.
South Euclid police warn residents that if they are ever asked to withdraw a large sum of money, to contact police, a family member or an attorney first.
