This call is probably a scam if you paid for tech support services and then received a call seeking a refund. Don’t divulge any private or financial information to this person.

A few months after making a purchase, someone contacts you to inquire about your satisfaction with the service. This is how the refund scam operates. If you respond “No,” the con artist offers you a refund. The caller may also inform you that the firm is closing and that refunds will be given. In the end, the con artist will want access to your bank account so they may make a deposit or your bank account number. However, the con artist steals money from your account rather than depositing it.

Refund and Recovery Scams

Scams that prey on victims who have already lost money to a scam are the worst of the worst. A refund or recovery scam might target you if you’ve already been duped. These con games involve someone promising to assist you in recovering lost funds, lost prizes, or lost items in exchange for a fee. You’ll incur a further financial loss if you do.

How Refund and Recovery Scams Work

The scam typically follows a predetermined pattern, whether it’s a refund scam promising to return your money or a recovery fraud promising to deliver the reward or merchandise you were promised. How it works is as follows:

• A fraud was already pulled on you. You might have paid for a counterfeit prize, donated money to a fraudulent institution, or fallen victim to one of the many different ways con artists try to defraud you.
•  A “sucker list,” as con artists refer to it, contains your name. Scammers collect lists of people who have already lost money to fraud and sell those lists. Your name, address, phone number, the type of scam that conned you, and the amount of money you spent may all be included. These lists are bought, sold, and traded by con artists who believe that victims of fraud are prime candidates for further fraud.
• Scammers come calling — again. The con artist gets in touch with you via phone, mail, or internet using a list of people who have already paid money to a hoax. This time, they’re promising to reimburse you for any missing funds, prizes, or items. No issue if you weren’t aware that you had been conned. Using the information, they purchased, the con artist might “helpfully” alert you about the prior deception. The information makes the con artist seem trustworthy.
• They make you think you can trust them. The con artists may pose as representatives of the government, consumer advocacy groups, law firms, charities, or other organizations. Some even claim to represent the fraudulent business that received your payment and are giving refunds to unhappy clients. They might promise to submit a complaint with a government agency on your behalf, say they’re holding money for you, or say they can place your name at the front of a list for compensation. Whatever they claim, it is a falsehood told in an effort to win your trust and your business.
• You’re told you need to pay. The con artists demand payment or financial information in exchange for their promise to retrieve your money or goods. They may refer to the up-front cash as a “gift” to a certain charity or even a “retainer fee,” “processing fee,” “administrative charge,” “tax,” or “shipping and handling charge.” Alternatively, they can claim that they want your debit, checking, or other bank account number in order to deposit a refund into your account. Your money will vanish if you provide them with the needed charge or account information.
• How To Recognize Refund and Recovery Scams
•  Scammers get in touch with you and demand money up ahead. It’s never a good idea to pay upfront, especially when someone contacts you without warning, whether they contact you by mail, email, phone, or text message. Additionally, it is illegal for telemarketers offering recovery services to request or receive payment prior to delivering the money or object they have recovered to you after seven business days.

• Scammers demand money or personal information while posing as representatives of the government, a nonprofit, or another organization. Government agencies and legitimate companies won’t request payment to hasten your return. Your bank account information or any other private information will never be requested, and they won’t guarantee a refund. A con artist is someone who does any of these things.

How To Avoid Refund and Recovery Scams

• • Don’t believe calls, letters, emails, or social media posts from people who offer to retrieve money you lost to a scam in exchange for a fee. You’ll incur greater losses.
• • Never pay for a refund or assistance with a refund up front. In order to receive a refund, you should never provide your bank account, credit card, or other payment information. Scammers are anyone who requests your credit card number or upfront payment.
• • Recognize that only con artists will advise you to send money via wire transfer, bitcoin, or gift card using services like Western Union or MoneyGram. Anyone who requests payment in any of these methods is a con artist.
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• If you receive a check for a purported reimbursement that is higher than the amount you lost, be wary. Some con artists will claim that a mistake was made and instruct you to cash the check, pocket the money you are owed, and return the remaining balance. A bank may not realize that a check it cashed was fraudulent for several weeks. The bank will want its money back if you use it in the interim, even if you return some of it to the con artist.

• Check out any businesses or governmental entities that get in touch with you. Search for the name of the organization or business online using terms like “complaint,” “scam,” or “review.” In order to find out if other people have complained about the group, check with your state’s attorney general as well. Look for the phone number of any government organizations on your own. To confirm that they got in touch with you, phone them. Never dial a number that a caller provided for you.

What To Do If You Already Paid To Get a Refund

• Scammers frequently make payment requests that make it difficult to get your money back. The sooner you take action if you’ve paid a con artist, the better. To try to halt a transaction, get a transaction reversed, or receive a refund, follow these procedures.
• Inform others of refund and recovery scams
• Report any refund or recovery scams you’ve fallen victim to, as well as any information you may have about the business or con artist that called you.
• to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov
• to your state attorney general

When you report these scammers, you help law enforcement stop them and alert others in your community to the scam.