AURORA, Colo. — A Denver man received a phone call from what he thought was his bank.
The call was meant to verify purchases in his account because of possible fraud detected coming from Texas.
Alex Wegienka said he would normally never pick up unknown calls, but this time around, the caller ID said it was coming from Wells Fargo.
"I let them know those aren’t mine. I do travel a lot, so it wouldn’t be odd, but I wasn’t traveling at that time, so I let them know that wasn’t me," said Wegienka. "I asked, am I going to be able to access my account because I have bills and mortgage due tomorrow and they stated they can get me a digital wallet on my phone, as Apple Cash."
Wegienka said he doesn't keep up with the latest trends, so he wasn't sure if Wells Fargo had partnered with Apple Pay. He proceeded to give scammers specific information, such as his Apple ID and the latest transactions he's made.
The scammers also asked Wegienka to go to his settings on his phone and change his Apple ID password. Once Wegienka updated his password, the call dropped, he had no cell service, and every piece information on his phone were gone, plus more than $600.
"Literally for someone to just take that money, like financially it’s very personal and it’s an attack. I think people need to be more mindful that you can’t trust a lot of things nowadays," said Wegienka. "I think I will always be a little wary about the calls I get, it’s tough to be in that position especially when you own a business."
According to Aurora Police, this year they have seen 25 cases of this specific scam.
The scam can start with a call that you think is from your bank. The caller says there has been fraud detected on the account from someone using another cell phone in a different state. When the fake purchases are "confirmed" to be fraud, the scammer says they will deactivate the card and look into the matter.
"If you allowed the scammers into your phone or your computer, it will show up that they’ve deposited a very large amount to your account," said Aurora Police Sgt. Dan Courtenay.
Once that is complete, the scammer hangs up and has secured funds from the account, along with access to your cell phone.
"There’s very little that we can do after it happens," Courtenay said. "The people have lost their money and unless the bank can return the funds, you’re out of money. People think if they can make a police report, we can arrest the person and get the money back and it doesn’t work like that."
Police want to remind people, if a phone call sounds suspicious, hang up and call your bank or business at a trusted number.
Scammers have the ability to disguise phone calls from nearly anywhere including a bank, a business and even government offices.
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