Scam Alert: Two Different Women Get Email from ‘Best Buy Geek Squad’ and Lose $30K and $64K
Two different women received an email about their protection plans expiring, and Best Buy Geek Squad Scammers successfully rob them.
Most people think of the Best Buy Geek Squad as helpful people, and rightfully so. Some of the best IT professionals get their start at Best Buy. But sometimes, bad actors (cybercriminals) pose as the “good guys” and take advantage of this squeaky clean image of the Best Buy Geek Squad.
In the next two stories, find out what happened when these unsuspecting women get an email from Best Buy Geek Squad and their two mistakes that lead to money loss.
Victim #1: The Grieving Widow
Nobody wants to bury their husband, to have funeral and burial expenses, and then turn around and get scammed in the same week. But that’s just what happened to a woman in Detroit, MI.
Christina Ihlenfeldt was going through a lot back in August 2020. Her husband, Bob, passed away suddenly from a heart attack, and she suddenly became a widow.
On the morning of August 19, 2020, Christina was sitting outside on her husband’s lawn chair, with a cup of coffee, taking in the morning sun. She was feeling depressed from recent events and she received a phone call.
It was her employer, a philanthropic firm in the financial sector.
“I’m sorry, Christina, we’re letting you go.”
Her heart dropped. Her career, an administrative assistant job of almost six years had just eliminated her position. Things had now sunk to a new low.
How was she going to pay her bills? Could life get any worse?
Just two days later after losing her job, she received an alert from her husband’s AOL email account. The email was from ‘Best Buy Geek Squad’ informing Bob that his credit card was being charged $300 USD for two years of protection.
Since she would be on a very limited budget, Christina set out to cancel this charge. She called the number provided in the email. This was her first mistake.
