Surprise! Here’s your Punchbowl invitation — to a scam
If you receive a Punchbowl invitation for a friend’s event, don’t rush out to buy a new party dress just yet. That festive invite could just be part of a dangerous phishing scam.
SCAM ALERT
The Consumer Rescue team often receives pleas for help from readers who have been victimized by a scam. The articles here serve as cautionary tales to alert potential victims so that they can avoid falling victim to a similar scam.
How my own daughter’s $1 donation turned into a $2,000 Zelle scam
I’ve spent years writing about Zelle scams and how to recognize and avoid them. That’s what makes what happened to my daughter last week on the streets of Philadelphia so unusual.
She went to Facebook for a Norse Atlantic refund. Instead, scammers stole $5,100 from her
Norse Atlantic Airways customer Joanne Reston joined the airline’s official Facebook group to complain about a missing refund. At least that’s what she thought she was doing. As it turns out that Facebook group had no affiliation with the airline. In fact, it was just a trap set by scammers pretending to be helpful Norse agents.
What happened to Reiss after joining that Facebook group can only be described as a whirlwind of one scam after another.
Cruise ship passengers tricked out of $6,000 by fake Costco Travel
On Black Friday, Shane McCormick called Costco Travel to book four cabins on a Royal Caribbean cruise to Alaska. At least that’s what he thought he was doing. In reality, he dialed the wrong number and instead of Costco Travel he reached a scam call center.
Of course, the man on the other end of the line didn’t alert McCormick of his error. In fact, the call was exactly what the fake Costco Travel agent had been waiting for all day. The bad actor was more than happy to collect $6,000 from his unaware target.
Help! A scammer drained $1,010 from my PayPal account
Just before the holidays, Jill Eberhardt says scammers hit her PayPal account with a $1,010 unauthorized transaction. Although her bank, Chase, immediately identified the unusual “purchase” from Maple & Mist Café as fraudulent, PayPal disagreed. It determined she had authorized the transaction — and PayPal’s opinion was the only one that mattered.
Eberhardt’s money was gone.
How a $428 Southwest Airlines ticket cost a scam victim $4,500
How did a $428 Southwest Airlines ticket end up costing an American Airlines customer in distress $4,500? If you guessed a fake airline call center scam is behind this astounding upsell, you would be right.
Ace Rent a Car charged a customer $1,400 for damage it already knew about
Ace Rent a Car at the Tampa airport blindsided Carla Lemker with a $1,400 repair bill after her last rental. Sure that she didn’t cause any damage to the vehicle, Lemker asked the company for proof. That’s when things got really weird.
Fake British Airways charged me $12,516 after a flight cancellation. Help!
Ron Samborsky and his family were on their way to Europe to board Norwegian Cruise Line’s Breakaway… until they weren’t. After American Airlines canceled their flight and offered no replacement until the next day, the trip was in serious jeopardy.
Then a scammer stepped in to save the day.
How fake Carnival Cruise Line customer service is scamming passengers
Fake Carnival Cruise Line customer service centers are scamming passengers into giving away their personal information and money. Here’s how to spot these bad actors — and protect your vacation dollars.
I fell for an internet romance scam. Can anything be done now?
As she searched for a new job, love suddenly was in the air — or so Karen C. thought. But behind the inappropriate emails she received from her recruiter with carefully typed romantic promises lurked a scammer weaving a web of deceit.
Karen couldn’t believe her luck. She thought she had found a dream job and a romantic partner, but the reality was much, much different.
