Description

On December 1st, 2023 , Friday at noon, I received a text message from the scammer, who pretended to be my academic advisor and wrote my advisor's name at the end of the text. The phone number is (843)597-1602. The scammer asked me to buy Apple gift card for a presentation for a conference. I asked for a call or zoom meeting, but the scammer said "unable to do that" because of the ongoing presentation. Unfortunately, there was really an academic conference so I believed that. I bought a $1000 gift card from Apple Legacy Place at Dedham, MA at about 2 pm. Then the scammer asked me to deliver the physical card in 5 min (obviously it is an impossible task). Then I was asked to send the gift card information to the scammer and I did that. The scammer said the presentation would be end in 3 hours and asked me to come to the scammer's office at 5:40 pm to meet. But the scammer asked me to buy more cards for the presentation at about 4:30 pm. I went to the Apple chestnut hill to buy two $500 apple gift cards and sent the information as before. But I realized that it might be a scam and went to my department and my advisor's office to check. After checking, I confirmed that this was a scam and I called Apple Support immediately (at about 5-5:30 pm). I lost $2000 in total. Apple Support suggested me to go back to the apple stores and denied my refund request. I went back to the stores where I bought the cards, and the shopper suggested me to call local policy and to contact my credit card company. I called the local policy and got a report number. I reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and also got a case number. I contacted my credit card company but the two transactions are still pending. I'll dispute the transactions after they were posted.