In Orlando, Florida, a passerby had 3,800 dollars (about 3,350 euros) extorted on Saturday, February 12, by a young man who simply borrowed her cell phone to make a call.
According to CBS, Shannon Fraser, victim and owner of the phone, explained that the scammer “looked like he was 12 years old” and that he seemed “freaked out” because he had lost his family and friends and had no more battery on his mobile. Convinced of doing a good deed, Shannon Fraser lent her her phone. The boy then entered a number and put his interlocutor on loudspeaker to ask him where they were. The young man then asked if he could go to Google maps to locate his friends. Seeing no objection, Shannon Fraser agreed to the process.
A perfect plan
Even though the scammer was under his victim’s nose, the latter did not realize that the young man was far from looking at Google Maps. In less than 3 minutes, he executed two transfers on the Venmo application, a mobile payment service owned by Paypal, one for 1,800 dollars and the other for 2,000 dollars. Alerted by her bank two days later, Shannon contacted the application and learned that the young boy had created an account 30 minutes before approaching her. But once the deception was unmasked, it was too late, the transfers left and arrived cheaply…
To avoid this kind of trap, it is advisable to protect your applications with facial recognition and a PIN code.