I Was (Almost) Scammed, Twice

The other day I got a phone call from someone calling himself “Jason” and claiming he worked for Con Edison, the New York gas and electric company.  He said that a Con Ed team were coming to my apartment to turn off my gas and electric service because I hadn’t paid a $450 conversion fee.

“Jason” insisted that Con Ed had notified me in December 2024 that it was shifting my “prior account” (a 15 number series) to a “current account” (an 11 number series) and that I had failed to pay the $450 conversion fee.  To say the least, I was freaked out.

I told “Jason” that I had never received notification about a “conversion fee” and had paid my Con Ed bill every month.  I asked why my monthly fees were not used to cover the “conversion fee”; he insisted that they were separate booking-keeping accounts, and I had to immediate transfer $450 in cash via Melio to him.

I told “Jason” that I had never used Melio and was not sure how my bank processed such transfers.  He said I should take $450 in cash to my local CVS and have it process the transfer. I said I needed to get the cash, and he told me to call him back at 1-800-610-9056 when I arrived at the CVS.

The more I spoke with “Jason,” the more the whole episode smelled like a con.  I called a good friend, and he agreed: the whole thing was a scam.  I then called my local Con Ed, and they confirmed that the call was a scam.  In addition, I filed a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

I then called back “Jason” and told him that he could pickup the money at a local police station.

The second scam was more innocent and is often referred to as “phishing.” In this scam, someone poses as real person and use texts or emails to con the individuals into revealing personal information like login credentials, account details, or financial information. This information is then used to steal money, access accounts or cause other harm.

In this scam, I kept getting text messages from someone named “Elena” – at 1-437-535-9023 – looking for someone names “Erin.”  In one message she wrote that she had met him at a LA financial conference.  She asked, “… didn’t you save my number?”  After a couple of these texts, I wrote back saying that “Erin” was not at my number.

From this, this phishing scheme kept rolling back and forth, with “Elena” apologizing, then going on that she was 41 years old and had a daughter, and that

she planned to visit New York and could I suggest where to visit.  She then asked if we could get together when she was in the city.

At this point, I felt this was getting too weird and wrote, “please stop, I have nothing more to say.”  Did “Elena” stop? Of course, not; over the following few days I’d get one or two texts per day, asking questions, suggestions we could meet.  Finally, after a couple more days in which I didn’t reply to her texts, she shopped contacting me.

I’ve read about scams and phishing but had never experienced it myself so was caught off-guard, a perfect target.  In follow-up conversations with family and friends, I found that such schemes are quite common – everybody gets hit up in one scam or another all the time

Scams are a big business.  AARP estimates that American adults lost $47 billion in identify fraud and scams in 2024.  In another study, Comparitech reports that

nearly 59,000 Americans fell victim to romance scams in 2024, losing an estimated $697.3 million.

So, a word to the wise: don’t get scammed.

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