NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — If someone reaches out to you, saying they're a member of Geek Squad's tech support team, they could be an impostor trying to take your money.
Here's another reminder to beware of calls or emails from someone claiming to be from Best Buy or its Geek Squad support team.
According to a new report from the Federal Trade Commission, scammers try to impersonate the company all of the time. The FTC in fact has received more than 52,000 complaints about this.
Consumers reported losing $15 million in Best Buy and Geek Squad-related scams just last year.
And I know someone who lost money to this sort of scam.
In 2022, Jennifer Kraus' mother Barbara shared her experience so hopefully the same thing doesn't happen to you.
She got what appeared to be a bill from Best Buy's Geek Squad for three years of antivirus protection for her computers. Now she's a longtime Geek Squad customer, so she didn't question it.
But Barbara only likes to pay for subscriptions like this one year at a time. So, she called the number on what we know now was a fake bill.
And that's how they got her.
The woman on the phone told her that somehow $4,000 from her bank account wound up going to Best Buy and they wanted to get it back to her. And all they needed you guessed it was her bank account information.
Bank statements show the scammer repeatedly tried to withdraw money from her account
After that, the woman handed the phone over to a man who directed Barbara to go to several stores to buy gift cards, and then read the numbers from the back of the gift cards back to him over the phone.
Thankfully by the second store, Barbara realized it was a scam.
Just remember, if someone is trying to pressure you to turn over personal information or send them money even buy gift cards stop for a second and ask yourself is this really making sense.
And, when in doubt - hang up!
I LOVE Forrest's stories on the history of NewsChannel 5 as we celebrate our 70th anniversary. Here's a story I wasn't familiar with until recently. Eudora Boxley had a live cooking show in the early days of the station. She may have been the first black on air at NewsChannel 5 and perhaps, one of the first African Americans to have a TV cooking show anywhere in the country. It wasn't until her grandson reached out to me that I even heard of Ms. Boxley. Thankfully, I was able to connect him with Forest to learn more about this great nugget in NewsChannel 5 history.
-Lelan Statom
