As a news anchor, she brings you the daily news, including warnings about scams. But, never did she imagine almost falling victim to one tricky scam. [Click here for the full Ask Amy Episode on this topic.]
Sofia Ojeda explains how the entire situation unfolded:
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I feel like I’m pretty smart when it comes to scams. I try to listen to the news stories and, you know, try to take the cues and little things that don’t make sense, and kind of red flags.
I had a few of those when I got this email, but I was so excited to be a part of this event that they were telling me about. I just kind of, you know, got caught up in it. So I received an email about two weeks ago, and it was from the Ashley Flowers podcast team.
Flowers is the creator of “Crime Junkie,” a really popular podcast.
The email wanted me to be a part of the podcast. They wanted me to come on and talk about my experience. You know, in my profession, I’m thinking, “Oh my goodness, this is the opportunity of a lifetime! Wow! I’m so honored! I’m so excited! A little nervous, right? Like, why would they choose me? But I thought, “Hey, it could happen.”
And so I just looked at the email and I said, “I really should message them directly.” That was the first thing I said that I should just message them. So, I responded to the email and said, “Hey, I’d love more information. Tell me what this is about.” And so this person said, “Great, you’ll be part of an event. You’ll talk about your experience in news anchoring and news reporting and covering crimes. And, you know, let’s set up a Zoom to get this going, to set this all up, because we need to get the technical side of it. I want to check the sound and where you’re going to be doing the Zoom.”
So I said, “All right, let’s set up the Zoom.”
I set up the zoom at home. And you know, right away this person was asking me if I had access to my work Facebook page.
“Can I get in there and change some settings?”
And I said, well, what is that? Because they want you to be part of an online event. And I guess the more followers you invite, if the setting is on in your Facebook page, then that’s how you monetize. Okay. So I never really heard of it. I don’t really understand that side of it, but he just kept asking me.
Then, he promised that I would have a one-on-one interview with Ashley Flowers and that she would be calling me and I would be part of her Facebook event on Facebook Live.
I was so honored, but I knew there were so many little red flags. Finally, after I spoke with this person on Zoom, I never saw his face, by the way, they just put up a picture. I said, you know what? I’m going to contact the Ashley Flowers team directly and the Crime Junkie team directly. And I did, and immediately they wrote back, thanks for reaching out, but this email address is not one of our official emails. It seems as though you have been sent a spam email, a scam, and my heart sunk.
I know the signs of a scam, right? I would think that I would be able to follow the signs. I know what to look out for, and I know not to give out information and I know all this stuff. But I was just so excited to do this.
I knew it. My gut said whatever he was trying to do to get me to access my Facebook account and share my screen. He kept asking me to share my screen to be able to get in there. I don’t know if there’s credit card information that I have saved in there. I don’t know. But I was like, “Okay, he’s not legit. This is not.”
The new way cyber thieves are targeting victims
Sofia shares her story with Amy Davis for this week’s Ask Amy episode. You can also hear from expert Tim Howard about how to protect yourself from cybercriminals.