Joe Subach was just trying to send some money to a friend. But one phone call later, with a woman named ‘Daisy,’ and his financial situation was forever changed.
Subach was the victim of two back-to-back scams — one that even involved him handing over his precious metals to money mules — that drained him of a whopping $1 million.
“I worked 43 hard years for that,” he told NBC10 News Philadelphia.
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It started out with a simple online search for Apple’s customer support number to get help sending money to a friend via Apple Pay. When he called the number, a woman picked up and said her name was Daisy, from Apple.
What he didn’t realize until later — when it was too late — is that he called a phony number and Daisy was a fraudster.
How the back-to-back scams worked
In this case, Subach was the victim of a double fraud, starting with a customer service scam and then progressing into a romance scam.
When he first called the number, he says ‘Daisy’ told him that his account had been hacked and his identity had been compromised. She then told him he needed to buy gift cards, scratch off the backs and send her the numbers, which was part of the process to protect his money.
But the scam didn’t end there. Daisy told Subach that they’d have to monitor his phone 24/7.
“And so, her number was scrolling at the top of my phone the whole time,” he told NBC10.
Over the next few months, the customer service scam evolved into a romance scam where the two would text every day — even cooking meals at the same time and sharing photos of their food.
After earning his trust, ‘Daisy’ took the scam one step further by offering to protect all of his assets.
“I told her I have gold and silver with Equity Trust Company,” Subach told NBC10. ‘Daisy’ then told him to take all of his gold and silver out of his depository and she’d have someone come to his house and pick it up. Subach said he loaded his own gold and silver — valued at $780,000 — into the back of the vehicle.
The person driving the vehicle was likely a money mule, a person who is recruited to transfer stolen or illicit funds (or, in this case, precious metals).
“We look at the money mule dynamic in two different buckets,” Nicole Senegar, the FBI assistant special agent in charge in Philadelphia, told NBC10, explaining that sometimes they are in on the scam, taking a cut, but in other cases they can be unwitting victims.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office, “Fraudsters rely on money mules to facilitate a range of fraud schemes, including those that predominantly impact older Americans, such as lottery fraud, romance scams and grandparent scams.”
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How to protect yourself
To avoid being scammed by a fraudster like ‘Daisy’ and handing over your hard-earned cash to a money mule, be aware of red flags.
For starters, keep on the lookout for fake or lookalike websites, warns the Better Business Bureau, and fake customer service support numbers. If the domain name of a website has a minor error (say, two letters are swapped), then it could be a fake. And, never click on links or call phone numbers in unsolicited emails or text messages.
A classic warning sign is if someone asks you “to wire them money, send cryptocurrency, send money by courier, send money over a payment app, or put money on a prepaid card or gift card and send it to them or give them the numbers on the card,” according to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.
So, for example, if you call a customer support number and the person on the other end of the line asks you to send numbers on gift cards, that’s an immediate red flag. If something seems off, hang up and check that you’re going to the actual company’s website. You can also try using a website checker, such as Google’s Safe Browsing tool. And, never hand over cash or precious metals to a stranger.
But you also want to avoid becoming a money mule as part of a larger scam. According to the FBI, criminals approach people looking for work or romance and try to turn them into mules.
“Criminals recruit money mules to help launder proceeds derived from online scams and frauds or crimes like human trafficking and drug trafficking. Money mules add layers of distance between crime victims and criminals, which makes it harder for law enforcement to accurately trace money trails,” says the FBI.
Don’t accept jobs that require you to use your own bank account to transfer money, a legitimate company wouldn’t ask you to do this, the FBI warns, adding that people should also “be suspicious if an individual you met on a dating website wants to use your bank account for receiving and forwarding money.”
Another warning sign, says the FBI, is if you’re asked to “process” or “transfer” funds through a wire transfer, automated clearing house or money service business — and, for your efforts, you can keep a portion of the money you transfer.
If caught, you could face federal charges such as mail fraud, wire fraud, bank fraud, money laundering and aggravated identity theft. And, that’s the case even if you aren’t aware you’re committing a crime.
As for Subach, he realized he’d been scammed after his money was gone — and so was Daisy. So far, no arrests have been made.
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This article provides information only and should not be construed as advice. It is provided without warranty of any kind.
