Interview with Julie Wilson, Scamadviser’s first Scam Fighter

Fighting scams is only possible by coming together as a community to help each other recognize and uncover scams. Julie Wilson runs the Facebook page ‘Scam Alert Global’ that has more than 15,000 followers and is dedicated to exposing all kinds of online scams. Every day Julie reports the scams she finds also to Scamadviser.com. In the last year, she reported more than 300 websites. We had the opportunity to sit down with Julie for an interview to know more about her experiences in scamfighting.

Scamadviser: When did you first come into contact with the ‘world of scams’? What happened?

Julie: I had only ever made one purchase online; I was always leery of online purchases. I took a leap of faith and purchased a hard-to-find soap as a Christmas gift. I was pleasantly surprised to receive the product; it was as advertised. It was easy and was delivered quickly. It was a direct-from-the-website purchase. I suppose this helped in my trust level for online purchases.

A couple of months later, one evening while on Facebook, there was a ‘free trial’ offer for some anti-wrinkle cream. The advertisement used photos and endorsements from a popular Canadian television show called Dragon’s Den. I did search for the advertisement’s terms and conditions, but couldn’t find them. The price was only $5.99 and I was just paying for shipping, so I provided my credit card number because my confidence in online purchases was bolstered from the previous experience.

At the time of checkout, another product was offered for an additional shipping fee, so I also purchased the secondary ‘free trial.’ Twelve days from the purchase date the product arrived, I intended to give the product to my sister as a gift.

Two days later, after the product arrived, my purse was stolen with all my banking cards, credit cards, SIN number, Driver’s License etc. While on the phone with Visa security to cancel my card, and also checking online to see if the theft had warranted purchases I had not made, there was a $649.00 purchase. However, this was not a recent purchase with the stolen card; this charge was made 1 day before the theft of my Visa card.

I asked the credit card company to tell me who this ‘merchant’ was. It was eventually determined to be the ‘anti-wrinkle’ purchase. Calling the company was no easy feat, as I had to do a lot of research online to find an email or telephone number. I was able to find this by sheer luck. I searched the address of the PO Box return address, this lead to finding a complaint of a company using the same PO Box return address, with the return address using the same PO number.

I then learned after calling the company that the product was not an anti-wrinkle cream, but something called ‘Garcinia Cambogia’. Another complainant had also ordered an online ‘free trial’ and had discovered that she was being charged a ‘monthly fee’ for unknowingly having agreed to terms and conditions, which she could not find on the advertisement, whereby she had inadvertently agreed to a monthly subscription.

Scammers advertise a free trial of a product or a free gift upon the completion of a survey, or a trial offer for which you'll be asked to provide a credit card number to cover shipping and handling. The delivery charges can vary from $1.99 to $9.99, but the subscription fees that you unknowingly signed up for can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars monthly.

The scammers will continue to charge you until you contact the company and cancel the services. These scam companies are notorious for using ‘VoIP’ numbers that are easily changed within minutes. They are also notorious at changing the ‘products’ for these ‘free’ offers.

On BBB, I found the name of the owner using the PO Box number and an Ontario telephone number. It was around midnight PST, making it around 3 am EST. I called anyways. I was screaming at the person who answered and demanded a reversal of the charges. She very reluctantly provided me with a return confirmation. I waited for the chargeback to be applied to my Visa, however, that didn’t take place because of the Visa rule to give the ‘seller’ AKA ‘scammer’ 45 days to provide PROOF that I had agreed to their Terms and Conditions (which I did NOT agree too, because there were none on their advertising).

It took me almost 60 days to finally get my money back, after repeatedly calling the ‘customer service number’ which changed 3 times in my discussions with them. I warned the seller that I would do everything in my power to ensure they would NEVER scam another person. This is what led me to create Scam Alert Global on Facebook.

Scamadviser: You started a very popular Facebook page. What was the reason you started this?

Julie: I was incensed with being duped into believing the scammers were actually offering a ‘trial offer’ and I only needed to pay a small shipping fee. There was NO information, or confirmation that I was ‘signing up’ for a monthly recurring charge by virtue of providing my Visa number.

Scamadviser: What are the main questions/posts you get on your Facebook page?

Julie: The main question is ‘Can you tell me if this page is a scam?’ My Facebook page handles ALL reports/complaints/questions. Many other scam reporting pages on Facebook only deal with specific scams i.e. romance, cryptocurrencies, clothing etc. whereas I have all of these.

Scamadviser: Were you ever threatened by scammers?

Julie: Yes, while trying to help ‘Immigration Scam’ victims of the same scammer and successfully retrieving $47,000 back from PayPal and Mastercard, I received a message from the scammer, followed by a threatening email that they will find me and kill me.

Scamadviser: Do scammers have a shared profile?

Julie:  We know that scammers work in teams. Romance scammers typically have multiple people working through one profile. This way, they can ‘email’ or chat with the victim at all hours (because of the time zone differences). Romance scammers are mostly Nigerian and although they were once referred to as Yahoo Boys, it is now well-known to be a crime syndicate run by the Black Axe, who openly recruit new members on Facebook pages.

Scamadviser:  What are the three things we should do to get rid of scammers?

Julie:  Honestly, I think we CAN’T get rid of scammers. We could, however, deter them by educating people about how to SPOT them.

Facebook is the Scam Capital of the World Wide Web! We didn’t know when the WWW was created that WEB meant to ‘catch its prey’ like a spider uses his.

I strongly believe there are numerous things Facebook can do to ensure there are NO Fake accounts, NO SCAM Advertisers etc. However, as Zuckerberg has stated, we’re ‘DUMB F*CKS’. Does this, therefore, mean we deserve to be scammed, while those very scammers are paying him BILLIONS per year in advertising?

Scamadviser: thank you very much Julie, for the interview and for being with us for such a long time.

P.S.: If you like to become a Scam Fighter as well, just contact us. We are always looking for support in research scams, social media and IT development.