Twenty eight years ago a young girl knocked on my door, selling magazine subscriptions. There are probably people “of age” that think that sounds super weird, but that’s just how stuff happened before the internet.
She was probably about 10. She was all by herself, and she had an upbeat attitude and a slick little pitch. After looking at her catalog of magazines, I agreed to buy a couple. One problem – she didn’t have a pen so I could check off my choices and fill in my info. So, I grabbed a pen.
After handing over $25.00 in cash for my subscriptions and my checked-off form, she asked if she could keep the pen. Of course I would give this sweet little entrepreneur my pen. I gave her the pen and off she went.
Within a couple of minutes, I was struck with the realization that I had likely just been scammed. I had no receipt for my purchase. She only had that one little catalog. She didn’t even have a pen, which, as someone who had done plenty of cookie, wrapping paper, and candy sales in my childhood, I know is key to the whole door-to-door child-sales-labor situation.
I never got any magazines. And as I think back to that day, the way I look at everyone, even kids, was forever changed by that.
I also immediately and forever felt stupid getting duped so easily – by a child. Not only did I hand her 25 hard-earned bucks, I gave her my fucking pen. That pen, which had negligible monetary value, has felt like rock salt in my 25 dollar wound for almost 3 decades now.
In February of this year, I was informed by my mom that she had just been scammed.
She explained that she had been contacted by the FBI. They told her there had been an ongoing scam at her bank – a teller that was hacking into peoples’ accounts and funneling monies into her own pocket. They could see by some verifiable activity in my mom’s accounts that this teller had focused her scam on my mom, and they needed her help.
So, at their direction, my mom went to the bank, withdrew over $20,000 in cash from her Wells Fargo account – making sure not to tip off the teller – took it next door to a Walgreens to purchase a specified type of envelope, and met a man in the parking lot to hand him the cash. She was directed to take a picture of the money, the man she handed it to, and the car he drove away in – all of which she did. They stayed on the phone with her the entire time.
After that undercover operation, it was time to move to the next step. They directed her to go to another Wells Fargo branch with the same instructions, which she attempted to follow. She entered a different branch and tried to withdraw another $20,000+ in cash. They weren’t able to accommodate her request, which she relayed back to the person on the phone. So, they directed her to try to withdraw $9,000, which she then attempted to do.
Suddenly the manager of the branch, who had apparently been watching this interaction, approached my mother and alerted her to the fact that she was on the phone with a scammer. My mom was then informed that this particular Wells Fargo branch had seen a million dollars worth of the same scam as of that date in 2026.
That was when it started to sink in for her just how much cash she had handed to a stranger. At the same time before her accounts were able to be frozen, monies were in the process of being wired out of another account, and her Wells Fargo credit card was maxed for the $10,000 daily limit.
She was able to recover the monies that were stuck in transit, but Wells Fargo in their infinite wisdom determined that the charges on her account were authorized and denied her claim against that $10,000 charge.
My mom’s wound ended up being slightly deeper than my pocket change and Bic. All told, my brilliant and capable mother was scammed out of over thirty thousand unrecoverable dollars.
I have so many thoughts.
These ain’t your mama’s scams.
The scams and scammers of yesterday take the same thing that scammers of today take, whether they scam you for $25 and your pen or for five figures. They take your confidence and leave you with embarrassment and shame.
They leave you questioning your ability to think critically and trust your own instincts.
The difference in the scams of today is that they are a sophisticated mix of playing on human nature and the complicated nature of today’s technology …at scale.
Instead of playing on the assumed virtue of a child, they play on panic and fear. They use “you’ve been hacked and we’re here to help, but you have to act now” or “we’ve got your loved one and we’ll release them, but you have to act now” or “you are desperate for a job, so we’ll offer you a lot of money, but you have to act now” tactics.
Scammers go after desperate people or they create situations that make people feel desperate, so they’ll take actions that under normal circumstances they’d never take.
These scams are well-designed and the tactics are rooted in an understanding of human nature. And there are layers to them, so if you don’t fall for option A, they’ll transition you right over to option B.
You must not hide in shame!
The people getting scammed (at least some of them, like my mom) often don’t confess, even to their closest friends, that they fell for something that, with hindsight, seems so obviously like a scam, because they feel so humiliated – so stupid.
We must start telling our stories so our loved ones don’t fall for the same or similar scams.
If you fell for a scam, YOU ARE NOT STUPID. You are just a human who wasn’t thinking like a criminal. And I am sorry to inform you, but you need to start thinking like a scammer.
Wells Fargo is the scammers best friend.
I will not gloss over Wells Fargo’s part in my mother’s case. You can expect to be scammed by scammers – they are pieces of human garbage. But Wells Fargo not only didn’t warn the exact target audience of these newly common scams when she came in asking to withdraw a very large amount of cash, but when they became aware that she had actually been scammed, Wells Fargo helped rub $10k worth of salt in her $20k+ wound.
The very next day after this happened to my mom, a friend shared that he was the victim of an attempted scam that included the use of accurate information from his Well Fargo account, just like my mom’s. This was most definitely based on a security breach that had just happened in their system. And still, they deemed the $10k charge to be “authorized”. Way to help (the bad guys) Wells Fargo!
Wells Fargo, especially knowing about such high dollar scams against the elderly as well as their own security breach, should AT THE VERY LEAST be warning every single customer about these scams.
They should be giving out printouts or pointing to posters for every customer who walks up that includes very simple instructions that can be read very quickly – perhaps while in a panicked state.
It’s time to have “the talk” with Mom and Dad.
I also feel responsible for what happened to my mom, and I especially won’t gloss over that. I knew about scams like this, but I didn’t feel the need to warn my mother. It all feels like so much paranoia and fear-mongering, and no one ever thinks it is going to happen to them. But since this happened to her, she’s mentioned how multiple of her friends have been scammed for thousands of dollars by clones of her Facebook account, and this week a young relative was almost scammed by a too-good-to-be-true job offer that fed off the desperation that job seekers are feeling right now. These things are everywhere.
It is not fear-mongering to share information with your loved ones about some of the tactics that are being used to take advantage of trusting people.
Wells Fargo, other banking institutions, and anyone who has an elderly loved one just trying to live their lives in this digital world, please share this information now and often.
Signs like this should be on every wall in every bank. Wells Fargo, you have my permission to use this.
Are You Being Scammed Right Now?
| Are you here because of a phone call, text, or email that made you feel panicked? This is the first red flag that it may be a scam. When you are panicked you are not thinking clearly. Are you being pressured to stay on the phone? This is another red flag that you are being scammed. This is done so you can’t verify the legitimacy of the “issue”. Are you being pressured to act quickly to avoid a bad thing happening to you or a loved one? This is a big red flag. Fear, much like panic, will cause you to act in ways you normally wouldn’t. If you answered “yes” to any question above STOP (and hang up). If you were contacted by: – the bank, contact them back through the number on your credit/debit card or go to the bank. – the FBI or other law enforcement, call 911 non-emergency or go to your local police station. – a loved one in danger, call them back using the number you have for them or speak to them face to face. |
Tips to Avoid The Scams
This isn’t just about doom and gloom and creating fear. There are ways to get yourself closer to scam-proof and farther from scam-bait on the scam scale. Beyond avoiding the scams that have you rushing to take money out of your bank, there is some additional information that you (and your loved ones) should consider, to avoid getting scammed using technology.
- In general, it is no longer safe to click on email or text links- not without lots of inspection and knowledge of how to spot a scam email or text. So, how do you stay safe and still use email?
- Use email and text only as a notification system, not as navigation. If you get a message from any company that you deal with, it may be legit. To be sure, type the website into your browser (or go to your previously bookmarked link) yourself to get to the website and log in to handle your business.
- Commonly seen: “Package can’t be delivered” texts, Promotional emails from trusted companies, messages that say “a problem with your account must be addressed immediately” etc
- What’s the scam? There could be many. I am certainly no expert, but here are some examples:
- Links in a scam email will go to fake websites that look 100% real, so you put in your account credentials.
- Links in a scam email can download malware to your device that will allow hackers to access your system.
- What’s the scam? There could be many. I am certainly no expert, but here are some examples:
- It is no longer safe to act on unsolicited phone calls and texts or get phone numbers from Google search results. Log in to your account to get the appropriate contact information and use a trusted number to call the company you need to contact.
- What’s the scam? See above
- Create a family (and close friends) codeword. Keep it private. Demand to hear it if anything feels suspicious.
- None of the scams I have mentioned involve AI, but expect for more AI scams to pop up. This is when your codeword will matter so you can make sure you aren’t talking to an AI version of a relative.
- If anyone you know (maybe someone not close enough to have a codeword) is asking you for money or information, whether by text, email or phone call, contact the person through a known channel – see them face to face if possible – to make sure it is truly who you think it is.
- This is especially important for users of social media. It happens there a lot. See more about that below.
- Watch out for the phony Friend Request on social media.
- Don’t accept friend requests from people you’re already friends with unless they tell you themselves (in person) that they have created a new account. Account cloning is a way scammers get people to send them money. You might not get scammed, but if you accept the request, you are now unintentionally giving legitimacy to this new account.
- Remember, if you don’t go for option one, scammers have a backup plan.
- Help your friends avoid getting scammed by someone pretending to be you. How? Let everyone know that any new friend requests coming from you are not actually you.
- Help friends of friends avoid getting scammed by letting your friends know if someone has cloned their account and sent you a friend request. They can then post a warning to their other friends not to accept requests from anyone that appears to be them.
- Hey, Facebook! I am looking at you too. How about a warning about scams for people when they get a new friend request? Need me to whip up some copy for you too? HMU.
- Don’t accept friend requests from people you’re already friends with unless they tell you themselves (in person) that they have created a new account. Account cloning is a way scammers get people to send them money. You might not get scammed, but if you accept the request, you are now unintentionally giving legitimacy to this new account.
- Stay current! Seek out new tactics that scammers are using. They are constantly changing. This might sound like a focus on doom, but a little bit of knowledge can be very reassuring, and you can even make this fun!
- Search for youtubers who target scammers if you’d like to have a little fun while you learn about some of the tactics being used.
- I have no affiliation with this Youtube channel, but it is a fun one to watch and learn from: https://www.youtube.com/@PleasantGreen
- If you see something that feels scammy, Google it. Often, you’ll find that some capeless hero out there has posted something about it.
- Search for youtubers who target scammers if you’d like to have a little fun while you learn about some of the tactics being used.
28 years ago when a little brat took me for $25 and a pen that she probably used to help her scam other people, I became aware of how my own biases caused me to get “got”. If you ask anyone who really knows me, they probably wouldn’t deny that I am a tad suspicious about people and about the world in general. I am not recommending that way of life for anyone. But I am strongly recommending that if you know about these new scams that you share your knowledge before someone you love gets “got”. And if you don’t know about these scams, learn about them ASAP. You might be able to save a loved one from learning about one of them the hard way, like my mom did.
Unfinished Kris 
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