I came home from the grocery store the other morning and when I came into the house, I could hear the Great Hunter was on the phone. He always has his phone on speaker, so I can always tell. I could hear a man speaking and to be honest, I was a little annoyed because I was left bringing in the groceries by myself. After I finished, I walked down the hall to his room and he turned around and whispered “I’m on the phone with my bank.” I put the groceries away and when I finished, he was still on the phone. I’d gone into the living room and sat down in my chair and he came in. He put the phone to his chest and said “someone tried to scam my bank account for $9,900 this morning at 4:35 a.m. at a Bitcoin machine.” I said “did you tell them you don’t even know what Bitcoin is?”

I still didn’t think much of it and again, to be honest, I was still a little irritated. He came back into the living room a few minutes later and said he had to go to the bank and asked if I wanted to go with him. I told him I did not. He went out and got into his truck and something just niggled my brain and I got up, grabbed my purse and went to his truck and got in. I’m sooooooo thankful for whatever urged me to go (probably because I was feeling guilty and also, the Great Hunter is good at a lot of things involving manual labor, but when it comes to more technical things, not so much).

When I got in the truck, he was still on the phone with a man he said was named “Jerry” or “Jeremy” or something like that. As soon as I heard “Jerry” speaking, my spidey sense went up because “Jerry” definitely had a Middle Eastern accent. (Okay, I will admit, I am prejudiced to anyone sounding Middle Eastern on the phone, after all, one once tried to tell me he was my grandson and he was in jail and needed bond money…okay, sure.)

The Great Hunter told me “Jerry” told him someone tried to hack his bank account at a Bitcoin machine, and that he needed to go to the bank and get the money out to reverse the transaction (or something like that).  He would be directed to the closest Bitcoin machine to complete the reversal of the attempted fraud. “Jerry” also said not to tell the cashier why he was taking the money out, but to make up something. The Great Hunter said he would tell them he was going to buy a camper (which he intends to do). I then took the phone and asked “Jerry” where he was calling from and he said it was the main Commerce Bank office in Kansas City.

I told him when we got to the bank, I would have him talk to the cashier and he said that the cashier would not be able to see the same information on the Great Hunter’s account that he could.  By then, all my spidey senses were tingling and I told him (using several expletives) that there was no way the Great Hunter was going to take any money out of his account. I asked him what number he was calling from and I would call him back to verify his identity. He told me the number was on the caller ID and hung up (which came back to a Google account in New York.)

By that time, we’d gotten to the bank and gone inside. As we were walking in, the Great Hunter’s phone rang and the caller ID said “Microsoft” and the caller asked to speak to him. I told the caller he could not talk to him and hung up.

I don’t remember when the Great Hunter told me how all this started. He said he’d been on the internet on his computer when he got one of those full-page notifications that his computer had a virus. He said he immediately turned the computer off and when he turned it back on, the virus notification was still there. He said there was a phone number for him to call Microsoft to help him get rid of the virus on his computer, so he did. The man on the phone, who called himself “John,” walked him through instructions on what he needed to do to get rid of the virus. The Great Hunter followed his instructions and the virus disappeared. I don’t know exactly what happened next, but “John” then told him he needed to call “Jerry” at the bank because he could see the Bitcoin transaction.

The Great Hunter did as he was told, called “Jerry”. Jerry said he was from Commerce Bank and because “Jerry” was able to tell the Great Hunter how much money he had in his bank accounts, the Great Hunter believed he was from the bank. (Hindsight, this was because when the Great Hunter followed “John’s” instructions, he allowed “John” to gain access to the Great Hunter’s bank accounts to see what balances he had in them.)

When we explained to the cashier what happened, he said this was a typical bank scamming attempt. He said to safeguard the Great Hunter’s accounts, he would shut down the online banking and all his accounts and open new ones. He gave the Great Hunter a new bank card and ordered new checks. He said the Great Hunter would have to contact both his employer and the Social Security office to change his direct deposits. He said the Great Hunter would need to have the virus removed from his computer and once that was done, the Great Hunter should come back in, and the cashier would help him set up his online banking again.

I’m so thankful that my guardian angel was sitting on my shoulder and made me get in the truck with the Great Hunter. If he’d done what he had been instructed to do, he would have lost all the money he’d worked so hard to save from his part-time job in anticipation of his long, hard-earned retirement in June. After all, I think 81 is a good retirement age.

As soon as we got home, I ran a full scan on his computer, the virus was found and eliminated. Just to be sure, I ran a second full scan and nothing more was found.

As soon as we felt his computer was safe (I say “we” but it was actually me but the Great Hunter was sitting there with me), I attempted to access his Social Security records to change his direct deposit bank. After verifying his identity twice, which entails taking photos of his driver’s license and a “selfie”, when I requested his “PIN” number, I was told that neither his phone number nor mine was associated with his account (even though they texted me the link to take the selfies).  At one point, I decided to just call Social Security, but I was told my wait time was “approximately 80 minutes,” so I kept trying through the computer.  I was finally successful in creating an account on “ID.me.” ID.me is described as:

… the next-generation digital identity wallet that simplifies how individuals securely prove their identity online. Consumers can verify their identity with ID.me once and seamlessly sign-in across websites without having to create a new sign-in and verify their identity again.

and the Social Security Administration accepts it for access. This whole process took over two hours, but hopefully, his payment at the end of the month will go into his new account.

Live and Learn! It was a long afternoon.