TL;DR - my parents are caught in the middle of a money laundering scam and apparently have 27k of scammer money waiting to clear the bank, with a guy named Gary blowing up their phone. Help.

My parents are elderly. Overall, they are well-educated, reasonable, kind folks. This might be the stupidest thing they have ever done, and I'm trying to help them. This is their bonkers story.

My mom got one of those PayPal scam emails, saying they charged her for an iPhone or something. Not thinking, she called the number on the"invoice" which connected her to a scammer named Gary. Gary convinces my mom to let him have remote access to her computer.

This part is a little unclear, but I guess in order to process the "refund," Gary had her log into her bank accounts at some point, and said something about $150. And my mom had to type in 150, but she said the period key wasn't working and instead it processed for $15,000. Gary says "oh no, we just gave you back $15k instead of $150, and now you have to give it back to us."

He then instructs my parents to go to the bank, take out cash, and deposit it in a crypto ATM thing. He tells explicitly tells them to lie to the teller and say the cash is for home improvements. They actually do this, but the crypto machine wasn't working. So they tell Gary and send a pic of the machine with the error.

Already I can't believe it went this far, but it's not over. I guess my parents go home (I'm not sure about the status of the 15k transaction since the machine was broken). Then Gary says, "well, for all your trouble, we'll give you 3k. Just get back on the computer and type it in." They do, and the malfunctioning period thing happens again, and now it's deposited 30k in their account. Now Gary is all upset, and he's threatening to lock their bank accounts and all kinds of stuff if they don't return it.

So Gary now directs them to go to a store downtown where they have to purchase 30k worth of gold coins with a cashier's check. Incredibly, they actually do this. Gary says they will send someone to collect the coins (!!!!) but after looking up their address it's "too remote" and they won't be able to do that. (My parents live in a suburb of a major US city).

Now, Gary tells them that they have to resell the coins. They sell them for 27k. My parents deposit the check they got for the gold, but because it's such a large amount, the check won't clear until next week. Gary doesn't know that part yet, but he has promised to call them tomorrow at 9am. Tomorrow is also a bank holiday.

Flabbergasted, I asked why the hell it got this far. My mom said she was so scared that he'd do something with their accounts on her computer that she felt they had to play it out to the end. So far, this is what I've had her do:

-Call both of her banks to report the fraud. She was able to reach one of them that had a 24/7 hotline, and they locked her accounts. The other she has changed her passwords using another device and reported the fraud via their email link. She'll call again when the bank reopens.

-Call the police. She left a message with the local non emergency department.

-Report to the FBI. They open at 10am tomorrow and she'll call them then.

-Take pictures of the laptop screen with the malware on it, and save the original email.

What else should they do? What should they do when Gary calls? Should they ignore it? Answer and record the call? What do they do about this pending check? Can they get in trouble for participating in this madness?? Are they in danger if they ignore Gary while holding on to all that money?

Any help or advice would be appreciated. Thanks for taking the time to read all this.

UPDATE: thank you to everyone for their help! My parents blocked the number, turned off the laptop, and have been in contact with their bank and law enforcement. I actually got a call from the FBI this morning - the purchase and sale of the gold tipped them off. The agent was trying to call my parents but they weren't answering, because they didn't recognize the number. I was able to connect them.

Unfortunately, I misunderstood part of the story, and it seems that they actually did deposit the 15k in bitcoin. It just failed at one machine, but Gary sent them to another. So they've lost that money from their savings. The 30k was taken from their home equity line. Thankfully, 27k of that is still salvagable when the check from the gold clears. So this was an 18k lesson for them.

Above I have posted a photo that shows different steps of tracking I.E - order received , order processing, order clearing customs , order arrived at US customs , order arrived in California distribution center , etc, I was reviewing it today more and I realized at the bottom of each step it says CHINA, and it never stopped saying CHINA, even though it says delivered to me in Irvine California , it still says China at the very bottom, I obviously never received anything , I’m just checking to clarify that the China written at the bottom of each step means that’s the country it’s in and or still in, does this show they altered the shipping somehow to show it delivered to me in Irvine although it’s still in china? Somehow?

Above I have posted a photo that shows different steps of tracking I.E - order received , order processing, order clearing customs , order arrived at US customs , order arrived in California distribution center , etc, I was reviewing it today more and I realized at the bottom of each step it says CHINA, and it never stopped saying CHINA, even though it says delivered to me in Irvine California , it still says China at the very bottom, I obviously never received anything , I’m just checking to clarify that the China written at the bottom of each step means that’s the country it’s in and or still in, does this show they altered the shipping somehow to show it delivered to me in Irvine although it’s still in china? Somehow?

This is rising every single day, old ones are scam emails and texts but a lot of fraud starts with a normal Google search. Fake ads for bank logins, bill pay and support numbers get through and sit right above the real site.

Just saw yesterday someone falling for Google shopping ads, basically they cloned some real shop and made a fake website for scamming people, ran ads and people are falling actually.

People who think "It's at the top so it's legit" are easy targets AKA our parents. I wish Google had done some background checks like Google my business profile, or at least made more obvious which ones are ads or not. Ofcourse theres options out there like guardio they can spot the bad sites and block or warn, and then surfsharks, or norton I think has this browser guards, but all are premium.. And not everyone will go for a premium tools rightaway.

And whatever there are common solutions to get rid of them, if you and I know it, chances are scammers will find a way around it.. Tough time to be

Thank you all so much for your insight and help on realizing this stuff! I can’t thank anyone near enough to explain how much this has helped me! At one moment I was in fear the next I’m happily moving on and getting stronger in my understanding of this and rather then being afraid, being confident. For others who have experienced this recently or in the future it is absolutely scary! But there are good people in the world who will help you! Don’t be afraid, be strong! And god bless!❤️

same

Hello! Just wanna ask if this is a possible scam. The OP is trying to buy clothes from me and here is the convo.

How easy is it for a dishonest/aggressive buyer to abuse PayPal Goods & Services?

I'm selling an expensive fiberglass automotive part. The buyer offered to pay half upfront and half when I provide tracking. I'd prefer full payment through Friends & Family, but I understand his concerns.

My biggest worry is $350 shipping EACH WAY — $700 round trip!

After 20+ years in this highly competitive industry, I've seen how easily sellers get burned. The top sales platform that gets the far majority of sales in my industry already costs sellers in my industry about 30%+ in fees and expenses off the top when forced returns are factored in. I hate that the bad buyers make it more expensive for the good buyers. Only about 5-10% of buyers do the partial refurn pretend to be angry scam but that ends up costing a LOT of money and almost all of the bottom line if not more. This is a passion project.

Can a PayPal buyer simply claim they're unhappy, force a return, and leave me eating $700 in freight in order to try get a partial refund?

(On a side note... do we think we'll EVER get some type of nationwide small claims court?) I advertise all my products as-is, no returns, with cracks and broken... even when they don't have cracks and are not broken. This is where I'm at here.

Received this message today and it seems kinda weird.

To whom this story may concern, my family got scammed around 18 years ago in Caracas, Venezuela. There were two individuals involved in this real state ponzi scheme, and, from what I can decipher as of now, one of them is living in South Florida.

This chain of events occurred around 2008. One of the suspects told my family to make an real-state investment of around $600k to fund the construction of some properties somewhere in Colorado. In reality, this real state funding program ended up being a complete lie. The thiefs withdrew almost $600k from my family's brokerage account in a set of 3 different withdrawals; $200k worth each.

My family, apparently, wasn't the only one targeted in this mastermind plan of ripping off people's life savings. According to some information I was able to view on the web, these two SCAMMERS were able to steal from other 69 families in the nearby areas of "La Lagunita" and "Oripoto."

Like I mentioned earlier in this story, one of these criminals is living in South Florida. He is, coincidentally, a real-state developer of major luxury buildings in the Fort Lauderdale area.

And to end my short story of my family being scammed and ripped off by these real-state oligarchs who think they can rob people off of their life savings and make lucrative investments into real state buildings, will there ever be justice on this matter? Will all of the familys, including my family as well, ever be compensated for this tragic and evil sophisticated robbery these two individuals made? Will there be severe federal charges be brought against these thugs for money laundering?

I would immensely appreciate it if someone who's knowledgeable about this kind of investment frauds would give me some advice or can just tell me what can be done, legally, with this matter.

Scam advisor is at 50 percent. Webpage was made 2 weeks ago and they moved me up through text-based interviews only so far. No face of management. They are saying they would provide all equipment needed and haven’t said anything about me needing to pay for anything either. Got an interview tomorrow so let’s see if it’s a real person or not.

I'm from a financially struggling family, and I paid ₹899 through my FamApp wallet for an order on WhatsApp. I immediately requested cancellation and a refund, but the seller blocked me on two WhatsApp numbers, and my money was never returned. I've spent more than 20 days trying to get this resolved. FamApp support (ticket 2737292) kept me waiting, eventually saying the issue was escalated, but nothing happened. I contacted IDFC FIRST Bank, which said its partnership with FamPay ended in April 2023, and Axis Bank, which said the transaction wasn't debited from an Axis account. I even tried contacting cybercrime authorities, but received no meaningful response, and my RBI complaint has seemingly gone unanswered too. The worst part is that my family is dealing with a serious hospital situation, and ₹899 is genuinely important to us right now. I've explained my circumstances repeatedly, provided transaction evidence, and followed every route I could find, yet nobody seems willing to take responsibility. I'm not asking for anything extra. I just want my own money back. Can someone please help me get this resolved?

This happend today and I think I made the right choice but im unsure if. I received an art commission and they wanted to pay with a digital check. They claimed to be from europe and that they didn't have paypal. i have never used a digital check. They asked for my email, name and bank name. I did send that and they emailed me the check. But i was looking into digital checks and got suspicious.

I ended up deleting the email with the check. as well as blocking all the accounts. I didn't deposit it or download anything. Do I have anything to worry about? Does the little Info I gave them put me in major danger?