A woman confessed that she and her husband felt like they had been completely fooled after falling for a scam.
Scammers have been around for a long time, constantly coming up with new tricks to steal people’s money. No matter how cautious you are, there’s always a risk of falling for their schemes.
However, a TikTok influencer has shared her experience of falling victim to an online scam that cost them their life savings.
She revealed that her savings were stolen after her husband received an anonymous phone call from a person who pretended that he was calling from their bank and pressured him into taking immediate action.
Amelia Mandeville-Marinaro, a 28-year-old TikTok star, shared her experience and admitted that she and her husband overlooked the warning signs and should have realized something was off.
Fighting back tears, Amelia explained that she is sharing her story to warn others and help them avoid making the same mistakes she did, hoping to prevent more people from being scammed.
“Today, we were scammed, which meant that we’ve lost our savings, which is, you know, scary because I’m on maternity leave, but I wanted to do this video so that other people learn from our mistakes,” she said in her TikTok video.
“I know people are going to be like, ‘Why are you so stupid? It’s obvious it’s a scam,’ but I think sometimes, in the moments, you don’t realize it, and I’m not doing this video to say we weren’t stupid.”
She explained that her husband, Pete, received a call from a no-caller ID number, and the person on the other end warned him, “Someone has hacked your account. We need to act fast.”
Amelia said her husband texted her about a problem but assured her he was handling it over the phone.
He then asked for her bank details, which she sent, though it made her uneasy. She couldn’t understand why the bank would need the information they should already have.
Her concerns grew when Pete told her she needed to approve a payment. The caller claimed they were moving their money to another account to keep it “safe,” which didn’t sit right with her.
As things started to seem more suspicious, Amelia checked their online banking account and saw a message stating that the bank was not currently contacting them.
However, Pete reassured her that this was intentional, explaining that the bank had supposedly sent the message to mislead the person trying to access their account.
Even though she had a bad feeling and sensed something was off, Amelia still approved the payment. She felt instant regret as she realized how suspicious the whole situation seemed.
“We just paid someone all of our savings, and it was silly, stupid of us,” said Amelia before having to pause the video, unable to continue.
Meanwhile, Pete emphasized that the scammers knew detailed information about their account and sounded highly convincing. Responding to people on social media, Amelia shared that the bank is currently investigating the issue, and she and Pete are hoping to recover their money.
Source: @winnieandminnie0 on TikTok
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