How a telemarketer tried to scam me!
This past February, I wanted to surprise my wife with concert tickets to see Snoh Aalegra, one of her favorite R&B artists. So I decided to check some ticket vendors to see if I could get a good deal on some. I researched a few of the companies I constantly hear advertised on the radio, and ended up on Stubhub. If you’re not familiar what Stubhub, they are a third-party ticket broker. You’re usually going to pay a bit more with a ticket broker since they have extra“fees”.
I ended up spending more than I wanted to spend for those two tickets, but I figured it was definitely was worth the money. I was excited about the concert, but more eager to get out of the house. We recently had a newborn baby and haven’t slept much, let alone been out on a date. I told my wife and she was so hyped! She immediately called her mom and asked her about babysitting the kids for the night (by night, I mean ALL NIGHT), so we were expecting to make the evening count. We were anticipating the night and we now had something to look forward to. My wife started planning her outfit for the night, which I thought was ridiculous, since the concert was not for another few months. She suggested that I buy a new outfit so we could get “all dressed up” for the night. We both found something that we thought would be perfect for the event.
Fast forward a month later… We were sitting at home watching an NBA game, when all of a sudden the game was cancelled and everyone was being sent home. Nobody knew what was going on. We would later come to find out that it was the ‘Coronavirus’ AKA COVID-19, and things were about to change drastically for the whole world. I don’t need to go into great detail about being quarantined or how everything shut down. I’m sure you know all too well. But by now, everything is starting to close and social distancing is now a thing. The concert that we were so looking forward to was now in jeopardy. Sure enough, a few days later, we would get an email from Stubhub telling us that the concert was not postponed, but it was cancelled! Stubhub offered us a 120% credit to use at a later day. Obviously there are worse problems caused by COVID than my concert, but we were still bummed out that we weren’t.
About a month later, we determined that we weren’t going to a concert any time soon, so I decided to call Stubhub for a refund. They really tried to nudge me to take that credit instead, but I wasn’t having it. They eventually told me that they would credit me a refund, but that it could take up to 120 days since so many people were requesting the same thing.
As I’m writing this, it has been almost 120 days since I first requested my refund. I decided to google the number and call to find out the status of my refund. So I called in and the person that answered said, “customer service”. I wasn’t sure if I dialed the right number, so I asked, “Is this Stubhub”? He tells me that it is Stubhub and that his name is John Smith (pretty common right?). I go on to tell him that I was calling about my refund. I gave him my reference number and told him how much I was owed, then he placed me on hold. When he came back, he said that my refund may take another 120 days and that gets me super upset because I had already waited that long. We go back and forth for about a minute and then he places me on another hold! At tihs point, I’m starting to get frustrated. This time when he comes back he says that he just spoke to his manager and that they’re found a way to get me my money today. John Smith now had my attention!
John tells me that unfortunately that banks were not issuing any refunds directly to cards due to COVID (which made no sense, since this has nothing to do with a bank). Now I was starting to get a bit suspicous. So I asked him, how I was going to get my money then… He tells me that he will will set up a digital wallet and that will allow me to get my funds instantly. So at this point, I start to put some pieces together and realize that this guy was a scammer! Side note: I watch tons of scammer videos on Youtube. Here is one of my favorite ones: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n6Rwc8lNn0k.
On one hand I was kind of impressed that these guys did their homework and have the scam down pretty well. On the other hand I was going to waste this guys time and get him frustrated. So I let him finish telling me how I was going to get my money. He said that I had to go to a local convenient store and buy either an Ebay or Stubhub gift card and put $200 on it, then give him the scratch off numbers on the back and they would then credit me the refund plus the $200 that I just spent. But wait, there’s more! He also said that since this has been such an inconvenience, that he would throw in an extra $100 for my troubles. Now to the naive, this sounds like a great deal, but I started to think about the many people that have actually been scammed out of their hard-earned money. Sad. So I told him that this sounds like a great deal and I want to do it! John asked for my zip code and I made up a 5-digit code “25935” or something like that. He said, okay you’re in _________. I said, uhhh yeah. He told me that there was a 7–11 only 10 minutes away and that I should go now before the deal expires. He said that I should keep him on the line, because if we lose connection, the deal is off. He also said that I should not tell anyone about this or the deal is off. This sounds like strange requests for such a “reputable company”. So I told John that it would take me about 20 minutes to get there and he said that was fine since he was still “working on my case”. He told me to say hello when I get there and he would tell me exactly what to do. So I put James on hold and put the phone down. I went to the kitchen and ate some lunch, then I went to take a quick shower. Then I went back to the phone and checked on John (by this time it had been 25 minutes that I had him on hold). I told him that I forgot my wallet at home so I had to go back, but that I was on my way back. He said to hurry because he gets off soon.
So I picked up the phone and it was not 45 minutes that I had John on hold. I told him that I was at 7–11 now. He told me to buy an Ebay card and put $200 on it. I go through the motions and tell him that I’m in my card now. He says to read off the numbers on the back. I ask him how many digits it should be so I could make up the right amount of numbers. I actually wrote down the numbers so that I could play with him a bit more. When he would try to confirm the numbers, I would tell him one number off and he was getting so frustrated. At this point I was tired of playing. I said, “Hey I know you’re a scammer and I don’t appreciate what you guys are trying to do to people. Karma is real.” Then I hung up. Confession: I called back the next day and pretended to be a completely different person, just to mess with them (I had time to be petty).
In the past 12 months, 1 out of 10 American’s is scammed for an average of $430. That is so unfair and it is not okay. Here is the Marketwatch article on scammers. Here is the number that I called: 1–888–930–0082. They also called me back from this number 1–833–655–9375 until I blocked them for good. Stay dilligent my friends.
