By all accounts it has been a baaaaad week.

It started when I tried to update the Early Music Hawaii website, where I am the webmaster. I needed to add information about the upcoming concert, Tourdions! by the early music ensemble, Ciaramella on March 9 and 10. Here’s the postcard I designed.

To my shock, I got a message that the page could not be found! I was told by the web host provider that the site had been infected by malware and it would require a purchase of only $200 for them to locate and remove the malware. I was assured that my website would be up and running within 48-72 hours so I authorized the purchase. As of this morning, a week later, the website was still down.

Then on Wednesday I got an urgent message from a friend, asking if I was traveling and was okay. Her nephew had received an email from a person requesting money on behalf of “Katherine Crosier”. I wrote about the incident in my last post, “Never Ever“.

As I tried to explain to my Spanish conversation friends what had happened, they tried to determine the connection between her nephew and me. Because another friend also received a spam email request from someone impersonating me, it suddenly dawned on me: We are all organists and we are all on the Executive Board of the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists!

I decided I would file a report with the FBI to clear my name, and made contact with the nephew who had filed a report with both the FBI and the police. I was in the midst of sorting everything out for the FBI application when I got a phone call. The caller ID said “LA County” and I didn’t answer and ignored it. The caller called back a second time, and then a third time, and I finally answered, even though I don’t generally answer calls from people I don’t know.

Bad mistake.

In a nutshell, this is what happened as I filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission:

I was called twice by the number purported to be the Los Angeles County police who said they had a warrant for my arrest because I did not show up for jury duty. They had the California address of my son and they claimed jury notices were sent to that address. In order to clear the bench warrant, I would have to go to the Honolulu Police Station and present a $2000 voucher in the form of Walmart gift cards. I went to Walmart and bought the cards and gave them the numbers. However, they said that I owed another $2000 and wanted me to buy more cards. The Walmart employees suspected it was a scam and I refused to answer when the scammer called me again. The scammer tried calling me several times more, this time with “No caller ID” displaying.

I was on my way to playing Candlemas at St. Mark’s and was pretty shaken when I arrived. In the few minutes remaining before the service was going to start, I alerted my banks and credit card companies to the scam.

Was I suspicious when the scammer asked me to buy Walmart gift cards? Of course. But he threatened me with having the Honolulu Police Department pick me up and throw me in jail. Me, a law-abiding citizen who has never been in trouble with the law? But it was entirely possible that my son had received a jury summons for me in the mail and just tossed it! When my son first purchased his townhouse, I was listed on the mortgage and deed. That’s probably how the scammer got my name. He supposedly had me talk to someone in the Honolulu Police Department who had “spoofed” his caller ID—which read “Honolulu Police Dept.”

The Good News:

1. After spending 45 minutes this morning with technical support, the Early Music Hawaii website is back up and running!
2. I have removed all the email addresses of the officers from the Hawaii Chapter American Guild of Organists website.
3. The nephew of the AGO Board member used a credit card for most of the funds forwarded to the scammer. Transactions can be disputed.
4. I notified Walmart of the scam, uploading photos of the gift cards and the receipts. They will be flagged out as fraudulent and will be unable to be used.
5. I notified my credit card companies of the scam and they will send me new credit cards.
6. The credit card transactions are listed as “pending,” and when they clear, they can be disputed.
7. The scammer inadvertently revealed his location and true phone number when he asked me to take a picture of the gift card and send it to him. He has a Georgia phone number and a Southern accent!
8. It’s entirely possible that I will have my money returned.

Whew! Moral of the story: Don’t answer the phone to anyone you don’t know! And don’t buy gift cards for anyone except your friends and relatives!

Useful websites:

Federal Trade Commission: https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/
How to Contact Gift Card Companies to Report Fraud: https://consumer.ftc.gov/articles/avoiding-and-reporting-gift-card-scams#contact