Indian Trail woman says she was scammed out of $23,000

INDIAN TRAIL, N.C. — A local woman says she was tricked out of more than $20,000 after getting an email that looked like it came from Apple iTunes.

Karla Timpani said the scam started with an email that said she owed more than $125. Now, she realizes there were red flags.

“For God’s sake, read the letter, look for typos, because this letter was filled with typos,” she told Action 9′s Jason Stoogenke. “I just kick myself for not doing the things that I should have done.”

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Timpani said she knew she didn’t owe any money and wanted to clear that up, so she called the phone number that was included in the email.

“I was in a hurry, and I wanted to get this done and over with,” she said.

Timpani said the person who answered her call pretended to be with Apple. He walked her through the steps to undo the charge, but it ended up looking like Apple owed her thousands of dollars.

“That should have been a flag, too,” she said.

Timpani said the man pretended to panic about losing his job and begged her to go buy Bitcoin and gift cards from various stores to cover the difference.

She fell for it.

“I really thought that I had made a mistake, and I was trying to do the right thing and give him his money back and not get him fired,” she said.

Her bank told her it was a scam, but by that point, she had handed over $23,000.

“I flipped out crying,” she said. “It’s a nightmare. I’m kicking myself all the time.”

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Timpani reported the scam to Apple and multiple agencies, including the FBI.

“I felt so alone,” she said. “If I can help just one person not get scammed this way or any way, that is what I am after.”

Action 9 offers this advice: If you get an email saying you owe money or ordered something you know you didn’t and you are worried, don’t trust the contact information on the message. Look up the information for the company directly and find out for sure before you do anything else.

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