Rinoa Poison: Scambaiter

MR vs Frank Mills (11310GEEKSQUAD) & Peter Wood — Geek Squad

Refund Amount: $499.99

Scam Amount: $18,000.00

Invoice # R59682

He said she’s been hacked from TX and CA, and they purchased GeekSquad services so they can get money from her. Frank asked if she had a PayPal account and said that he saw she had registered with a PayPal address. He said he would put a hold on the transaction, cancel it, and refund it as well, plus cancel the PayPal account, too.

Frank ran a scan to “eradicate the hacking tools.” He showed MR an ethernet graph to show her the scan. He told her to have a glass of water and be on the speakerphone while he worked. Instead of working, he told her that he had assigned a “fraudulent case officer” for her case. He transferred our call to Peter Wood from the billing department.

MR: Are you the fraudulent guy?

Peter: No.

MR: So, you’re in charge of the fraudulent billing department?

Peter: Yes, I’m in charge of the fraudulent billing department.

As the ethernet scan ran, he said that the hackers will be gone when it’s finished. He said that the refund would be sent to her savings account.

He told her to get a “fresh paper and a pen” to write down the balance.

MR: Write down checking and savings?

Peter: (slightly panicky) No! Just the savings.

MR told Peter that she had joined a “martial arts for grannies” program at the gym. He said that, at the end of the call, he would give her some tips “to keep you more heldy.”

The updating screen went away and he said that she was now connected to a “live portal payment server.” He gave a convoluted explanation of what that meant, but nobody understood it. He said that the bank representative would ask her questions and kept playing ignorant as he walked her through the form.

A few moments later, he got a notification from his accounts team that the amount had been transferred. It was $18,000! Peter’s shocked-Pikachu act followed but wasn’t very convincing. MR was upset that she was charged $18,000. He protested and said that it was SENT to her, then blamed her for the mistake. The portal said that there was $50,000 being charged into the account. He had difficulty explaining how $50,000 turned into $18,000. He explained that $499.99 became $50,000 because she forgot the decimal point. MR continued to argue about being charged versus being refunded. Peter grew angry and impatient with her, re-explaining about the mistake many times. She said that she couldn’t afford an $18,000 charge. He yelled that he would suspend her account if she kept arguing with him.

MR finally realized that the $18,000 was received, not charged. He said that his company had an $18,000 limit. Otherwise, it would have been $50,000. He said that the money was transferred into her checking account, forgetting that we were looking at her savings account. MR had questions again, confused about how $50,000 became $18,000. She was confused as to why they sent her $50,000 but were charging her $18,000.

He asked if she was a YouTube blogger. She was confused and asked him to explain it all in a better way because she didn’t understand what was happening. He went through the usual spiel about not telling anyone, taxes, suspended accounts, etc. He mentioned a penalty of $15,000 and a 45-day account suspension. MR was upset that she couldn’t afford the $15,000.

MR: This is a landline. I’m on a landmine right now.

He told her to withdraw $17,500 but she balked, thinking that she had to withdraw all of her money. She said she couldn’t do that because she had bills. He told her what to say to the bank and got angry when she didn’t repeat it back to him correctly. She was also confused about how to send him cash over the phone.

The scammers tried to transfer the $17,500 but the bank logged out again. He asked her if she liked fooling around and if she got a “good blog for your YouTube channel.” He bailed and booped.

MelonBuddy Translations Throughout the Call:

This is not hers.

Try to transfer $17,000. Hurry up.

Haha… Why are you moving around like a fish?

It’s fake.

Total Time Wasted: 1hr 41min 54sec

Stream Timestamp [02:41:10]

MR vs Jeffrey & Shawn-Shawn & Steve Dawson

Refund Amount: $1,029 charge for BB gun; then $1,229

Scam Amount: $12,000.00

Jeffrey got the computers connected but then the phone was disconnected.

Shawn called… We don’t know why. Jeffrey called back, too.

We played musical scammers for a while, jumping between Jeffrey and Shawn-Shawn.

We ended up talking to Shawn-Shawn after a bit of juggling.

Shawn-Shawn struggled with the computer password for a ridiculous amount of time. He transferred us to his billing officer, Steve, the senior manager on the floor.

Steve said that there was a $29 service fee but, when called out on that, he claimed that it would be refunded in two parts. But the $29 will be refunded separately. MR was very concerned about her $29 and didn’t want him to forget that he owed her that $29.

Steve agreed to pay any fees that she may incur. He told her to withdraw $10,700 cash from her bank. She agreed to do so.

He told her to leave her computer and phone as they were while she went to get the cash. She put the phone down and went to the bank. Earlier, she had answered a question by saying that her phone was a landline. He must have forgotten…. He’s just going to have to wait on hold until she gets back from the bank. Rinoa ended stream while he was sitting on hold… waiting…

Total Time Wasted: 1hr 27min + however long he stayed on the phone after stream ended