Mary Jo Bellner Swartzberg
A friend of ours (“Janet”) recently emailed me and said that she had fallen and broken her femur. Concerned, I wrote back and asked if she was still in the hospital and, if so, which hospital. I also asked about the circumstances of her fall. Janet wrote back saying that she was in Northwest Medical Center.
She then wrote that she needed to get a DoorDash eGift Card for a friend who is down with cancer of the liver. “It’s her birthday today. I tried purchasing them myself, but my card got declined. Can you get it from your Amazon account and have them send it to her email address? Let me know so I can provide you with her email address. I’ll reimburse you with the money spent.” I did not suspect anything but said that I would try to help her, but I did not act on it.
The next message that I received was (as written by the sender): “Thank you very much for the help. You made my day. Amount needed is $100. Three quantities total will be $300 DoorDash eGift Card. Email: Quinmary1209@aol.com. Have a sweet day! Let the delivery date be now. From: Sweet C.”
The next day, I received a message from Janet saying that her AOL account had been hacked and to delete any AOL emails from her and to use her new email.
As it turned out, many people I know received the same scam message. To be sure, Janet’s whole email list—perhaps hundreds of individuals—had received the scam message.
Be careful out there!
If you get a scam message, call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360 or report it with the AARP Scam Tracking Map.