'This is nuts!' NC woman scammed out of more than $1,000 during offer to save money

This a warning about an elaborate scam that involves an offer to save money.

A Moore county woman is a victim of this scam and had no idea she was a victim until she had more than a thousand dollars charged to her monthly cell phone bill.

It all started with a phone call that caught Joan Boeger off guard.

"They said we have a good deal going and we'd like to save you some money," she added. The deal she says she was offered was to save money on her internet and cell phone bill. To be part of the deal Boeger says the caller told her she needed a new modem. "He said I'm going to send you a new modem, and you just returned the modem that you have, and everything will be good," she told ABC11 Troubleshooter.

Instead of a new modem showing up at Boeger's door a new cell phone arrived.

"I was opening the box and the phone rang. He said we sent you the wrong thing."

The caller said he'd fix the mistake, and all she would have to do is send the new cell phone back.

"I'm going to email you a label to slap it on the package, bring it downtown, mail it and you'll be good, and that's what I did all in the same day," Boeger said she was told.

She followed those instructions and shipped it thinking nothing of it until she got her monthly bill, which now had a charge of more than one thousand dollars for a new phone.

"I said I didn't ever place an order for a phone. How do you justify charging for a phone that I never ordered?"

After calling her internet and cell phone provider, Boeger says a representative with Spectrum told her she was caught up in a scam that Spectrum never called her about a deal, instead a scammer, and the cell phone that she thought she shipped back to her cell provider went to a private residence.

"Someone wanted to get this phone from Spectrum that they could re-sell and make a little money off of it."

Boeger reported the fraud to the police and the police report details the scam, but the charge for the new cell phone was still on her bill.

"This is nuts. I talked to fraud. I talked to billing, I talked to retention. I talked to Customer service, and after two months I threw up my hands and said I'm done."

Boeger then got in touch with Troubleshooter Diane Wilson.

After a call from ABC11 Troubleshooter, Spectrum got right on the case and took the phone and extra charges off her bill. This is a big relief to Boeger and she's now warning others to be on guard when they get a phone call out of the blue about a special deal, as you could be dealing with a scammer.

"This guy knew my account, knew what I had on my bill."

This scam is known as the imposter scam, where someone impersonates a company making it appear they are with that company. They can manipulate the caller-ID to make it appear they are with that company and even send you emails and letters that also appear to be from that company. You need to be on guard and watch out for these imposter scams because while it appears these correspondences could be from the company itself, it's not.

Also, the best advice is anytime a package arrives at your home that you did not order, call the company it came from directly and report the mistake. Do not respond to unsolicited emails, phone calls, or text messages about the package.

More Troubleshooter Stories

Rental scam dupes Durham man out of thousands of dollars, gets him evicted from his home

Oven glass shatters without warning, leaving homeowners confused and out of options

After failed deliveries, Durham man gets refrigerator and compensation: ABC11 Troubleshooter