Disclaimer: In Real Life is a platform for everyday people to share their experiences and voices. All articles are personal stories and do not necessarily echo In Real Life’s sentiments.
This story is about a woman who got conned by a scammer with an email identical to that of her boss, losing RM2000 in the process.
I have always thought of myself as being too savvy to fall for scams. I worked in finance, knew all about cybersecurity risks, and constantly heard about the latest online threats.
Even my IT-expert husband constantly warned me about the risks and would give me solid advice. I’d roll my eyes at him, because how could anyone be tricked by those obvious phishing emails with all those spelling mistakes?
Then, on a normal Monday, it happened to me.
I was in the middle of my work, juggling a client proposal with text messages from my boss, who was at the client’s site. Suddenly, an email from her popped up on my Gmail. It looked like her work address, but it was on Gmail.
“What are you up to?” it read.
It was a bit strange to get an email since she could have just texted me, but she was known for her casual style at times and she’s sent me casual emails from Gmail before.
I told her what I was working on and she replied: “About to jump on a Zoom call, can’t use my phone much. Want to surprise some staff with gift vouchers, can you handle it? Keep it a secret!”
It was a simple task, so I agreed. The instructions felt a bit rushed, but I was given a specific amount to purchase for 5 sets. I bought RM2000 worth of Zalora gift cards, Lazada vouchers, and Shopee gift cards from a GiftVoucher.MY. From the scammer’s point of view, the timing was perfect, as my real boss was out of the office, working at the client’s office.
Luckily, my account triggered a security hold with the merchant as part of their KYC (Know Your Customer) and anti-money laundering measures. This delay started to make me suspicious. While the ‘boss’ grew impatient, I messaged the real her on WhatsApp asking about my credit card.
“What gift vouchers?” she replied, which set off alarm bells in my head.
That’s when I realised she was not busy on a Zoom call after all! I sent her a screenshot of the email and asked her if she had requested me to purchase some gift cards on the company’s behalf.
“I never sent this,” she said. “It looks like a scam.”
Immediately, I messaged GiftVoucher.MY to cancel the order. They were surprisingly fast in deactivating my account, confirming they’d seen this scam before.
My husband, who had just got off work, also got pulled into the drama. He called the bank to report the said transaction, and they were able to recover the money.
This was a humbling experience.
The type of scam I experienced is called a “social engineering scam”. It’s sophisticated and relies on impersonation.
In one high profile example, hackers tricked Twitter employees into giving them access to internal tools. Then they hijacked the accounts of people like Joe Biden, Elon Musk, and Kanye West to get their many followers to send Bitcoin to the hackers.
“Social engineering” scams are more common nowadays because it only takes one human error to become a victim of a socially engineered attack. This vulnerability is the reason why criminals are using social engineering techniques more often in 2024.
The scammer never got those gift card codes, and I left it hanging as of this morning without replying but I learned a hard lesson. My husband and I are tightening up our security even more now.
Scammers are experts at playing on our trust, and even the most careful among us can trip up. I won’t be judging victims of scams so quickly ever again.
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Read also: I Borrowed Money From A Loan Shark Syndicate But Fell Into Their Trap
I Borrowed Money From A Loan Shark Syndicate But I Fell Into Their Trap
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