{"id":842347,"date":"2025-04-20T18:12:44","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:12:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/scammers-get-6000-in-gift-cards-from-fayetteville-businessman\/"},"modified":"2025-04-20T18:12:44","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T23:12:44","slug":"scammers-get-6000-in-gift-cards-from-fayetteville-businessman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/20\/scammers-get-6000-in-gift-cards-from-fayetteville-businessman\/","title":{"rendered":"Scammers get $6000 in gift cards from Fayetteville businessman"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Last Summer an intelligent local businessman got scammed out of $6000 through an elaborate online and phone scam. This is the second in our Scam Series, Read the first one here<\/a>. Here\u2019s what happened to JD Holmes of Fayetteville, and he wants everyone to know, so that it won\u2019t happen to them, too.<\/p>\n

JD, then an 82-year-old Georgia Tech grad, has owned and operated businesses locally for decades. He takes charge of his life and his money. One Saturday, he went to download an owner\u2019s manual online when he got a notice, purportedly from Microsoft, that his security had been breached. It gave him a number to call.<\/p>\n

They guy who answered the phone was well-spoken. He claimed to be Akshay Kumar, and gave a Microsoft ID number and a phone number. He said he was from India, but working with Microsoft in Seattle as a software engineer in the fraud department. \u201cAkshay\u201d shared his photo and bio.<\/p>\n

JD, unsuspecting he was about to be duped, chatted about India. Akshay said he needed to do a scan and asked to remote into JD\u2019s computer with AnyDesk. His professional-seeming \u201cscan\u201d showed 26 hackers.<\/p>\n

Akshay suggested that JD check his bank accounts, \u201cI logged into Heritage Bank, and we reviewed two of my companies. They both looked okay. Then we checked the third account. I noticed a $951.31 charge entitled \u201cPop-up charge from Ohio.\u201d I told him that did not look right. He asked me if I was sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018Let me take care of it.\u2019 A couple of minutes later he said, \u2018Refresh your screen.\u2019 When I did, the \u2018Pop-up charge was gone, and replaced with a check in the amount of $951.31 that I HAD written to a vendor,\u201d said JD. \u201cThat made me feel better that he was able to correct that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s where JD really fell into the trap. \u201cNext, he wrote on my screen a plan of action. He said we need to set a trap. We would create a dummy account to attract the hackers. When they tried to access it, he would trap and block them. That all made sense to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

JD went to his American Express account and bought two $999 eGift cards to be sent to his own email address. He was told to wait ten minutes and get back with Akshay. When JD returned, Akshay ran another one of his \u201cscans\u201d that showed a supposed 17 hackers. So Akshay convinced him to do it all again.<\/p>\n

JD bought two more gift cards. This time Akshay said there were 7 hackers.<\/p>\n

When Akshay sent him back for more gift cards, \u201cAmerican Express balked. They explained that a lot of scammers buy gift cards, and they needed to verify some things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Now JD was suspicious. He disconnected the phone with Akshay. He went to Microsoft\u2019s website and accessed their security department. They asked JD if he felt he was being scammed. When he said yes, they gave him a form to fill out. JD gave all that info that Akshay had given him, including the employee number. JD specifically asked if Akshay was an employee of Microsoft.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen minutes later, I received an email from Microsoft! They said they appreciated my getting with them. They assured me that Akshay was, indeed, a software engineer working in their fraud department.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cAbout a minute later, I received a call from Akshay. He said Microsoft notified him that I had contacted them, but they only wanted one person working the project at a time.\u201d With JD\u2019s faith restored in Akshay, he bought two more gift cards from American Express. If you\u2019ve been following the numbers, so far, that totals nearly $6000.<\/p>\n

Akshay said there were two hackers left. So JD tried to buy another set of gift cards. American Express didn\u2019t allow the purchase to go through. JD was antsy about this whole process. He called his bank, and they saw no activity on the accounts. Just to be safe, JD put a fraud notice out.<\/p>\n

Then he called AmEx. They showed three sets of purchases, still pending. \u201cI asked them to stop payment on those transactions. Their reply was that they could not stop them because it was a legal transaction between the merchant and me. And I had authorized the transactions.\u201d JD had AmEx freeze his card and send him a new one.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, his eGift cards arrived to his email from AmEx. \u201cHowever, when I clicked on them, the money had already been spent!<\/p>\n

\u201cI was literally sick to my stomach, feeling violated and feeling like an idiot. I\u2019m still out $6,000. An expensive lesson,\u201d said JD.<\/p>\n

JD wants to share his lessons from this scam. He says never allow ANYONE to remote into your computer that you have not already had a relationship with. \u201cApparently, I had not exited the remote soon enough, which is how he knew what I had told Microsoft. He could see my screen.\u201d Akshay was likely able to send an email that looked like it was from Microsoft confirming his own identity.<\/p>\n

JD also says to not buy eGift cards for anyone you do not know, even if you are sending to your own address.<\/p>\n

Detective Michelle Taylor with the Peachtree City Criminal Investigations Bureau agrees with that advice. She says that no legitimate business, government or individual should ever require gift cards or eGift cards from you. And never take a picture of the back of your gift card and send it to someone. It\u2019s a major scam red flag.<\/p>\n

Scams are a big deal locally, Det. Taylor said, \u201cFraud is definitely our highest loss monetarily to victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detective Taylor thinks it\u2019s possible to be too nice. Just as JD had intelligent conversation with Akshay, \u201cWith the older community, they are polite. They have been raised to be respectful and to do what they\u2019re told, the right thing. And that\u2019s what really they get preyed on in regards to that. And it\u2019s such an unfortunate victimization tactic.\u201d<\/p>\n

Detective Taylor says the gift card scams are particularly hard, because there is no recovering that money. \u201cYou and I know gift cards are like cash, the credit cards and the banks aren\u2019t going to refund you your money because you willingly bought it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Scammers, like Akshay in JD\u2019s story, can be sophisticated. If you push back on their logic, Detective Taylor said, \u201cThey know how to get to someone. A lot of times I\u2019m finding that when a victim pushes back a little bit, like, \u2018well, wait, hang on a second.\u2019 They start to get a little aggressive. And they try to go back and play into the weaknesses that they might have exploited in the first place.\u201d<\/p>\n

Det. Taylor invites people who think they are being scammed to call 911 and get the assistance of their local law enforcement officer. She recently had two people call 911 while on a call with a scammer, and they weren\u2019t 100% sure. The officer helped them cut it off. \u201cWe would love to have that happen. Call us if you\u2019re not sure, we will answer your questions,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

JD reported his scam to the Fayette County Sheriff\u2019s Department, but he\u2019s a rarity. According to Det. Taylor the FBI says only one in 44 people over age 65 ever report their scam. She said an older generation may think, \u201cThis is embarrassing. If I finally get told that I\u2019ve been scammed, my family\u2019s going to find out. My kids are going to get mad.\u201d<\/p>\n

For online fraud, Det. Taylor says the best thing you can do is to report it, because the government may be able to track phone numbers, routing numbers, email addresses that you keep track of. She recommends the following FBI site to report online fraud: https:\/\/www.ic3.gov\/<\/p>\n

You might be able to be a part of taking down a crime syndicate. According to Det. Taylor, \u201cThey do a lot of data collection. Say, you only got scammed out of a hundred bucks, but the address or the phone number that you got scammed from matches to 50 other cases across the United States. They\u2019re going to look at that and go, now we\u2019ve got something across state lines. We can jump in and start helping. They need something that brings them into an investigation that gives them jurisdiction. You might be the first person to report it, but 30 people down the road, it finally ties into some bigger enterprise.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last Summer an intelligent local businessman got scammed out of $6000 through an elaborate online and phone scam. This is the second in our Scam Series, Read the first one here. Here\u2019s what happened to JD Holmes of Fayetteville, and he wants everyone to know, so that it won\u2019t happen to them, too. JD, then<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":842348,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22994,4131],"tags":[5213,112001],"class_list":{"0":"post-842347","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-cards","8":"category-scammers","9":"tag-cards","10":"tag-scammers"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=842347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/842347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/842348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=842347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=842347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=842347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}