Beware Of This Scam Or You Could Be Out More Than Just Money

A cautionary tale of a friend that almost got taken

“Hello, this is Janet from AT&T DirecTV. As a valued customer we can save you 50% on your DirecTV subscription through a limited time offer. Please call us back at 1–877–555–1212 to take advantage of this discount. Goodbye.”

While this is partially paraphrased (the phone number is not real), this is the robocall that I’ve received numerous times and that a work colleague and friend called me about yesterday.

He had received a call similar to this and as a good long-time customer of DirecTV, he thought if I can save 50% off my bill, why not, so he returned the call.

Thank you for calling AT&T DirecTV, how may I help you?

When he called he was initially met with an automated message showering words of appreciation for calling DirecTV and was asked to please hold for the next available representative. A handful of seconds later he was greeted by a very pleasant person asking how they could help.

My friend explained that he had received a call offering a 50% discount on his bill and he was interested in finding out more about it.

Saying the would be happy to help him with that, the representative asked for his name, DirecTV account number, and the telephone number linked to the account. He complied and gave them the information.

They proceeded to confirm his current monthly DirecTV bill and the credit card that he uses to pay it. So far so good.

His current bill is $95 per month and they said they were running a promotion with eBay and that they could get his bill down to $47.50 per month for 24 months. Wow, he thought, this is pretty good.

Continuing, the DirecTV representative said that the only conditions on the offer were that you pay for 10 months of service up front for a total of $457. At this point he was okay with this, the savings were worth it.

They went on to say that because the offer was in conjunction with eBay, to accept it he would have to apply for the eBay credit card and use that to pay for the first 10 months up front, or, and this is where it gets interesting, he could go to his local pharmacy and purchase $457 in eBay prepaid cards and call them back giving them the card number(s) and pin(s).

Since my friend didn’t want another credit card he told him that he would prefer to pay with eBay prepaid cards. It really was too good a deal to pass up he thought.

To sweeten the deal, they also told him they would give him two premium channels, Showtime and HBO for 2 years at no additional charge for being such a great DirecTV customer.

Pleased with his savings and the added perks, he thanked them for their help and said he would be in touch later in the day with the eBay prepaid card numbers.

Uh oh, I’m having second thoughts

After hanging up with the representative, he started to wonder if this offer was too good to be true.

It sounded legitimate. The greeting and on-hold messages clearly were DirecTV’s. The representative was polite and professional and was able to tell him what his current bill amount was. It has to be real doesn’t it?

Now I only found out about this because he called me to ask for my opinion on this right after he hung up with the DirecTV representative.

He explained what transpired as I’ve described previously. When he mentioned an offer between DirecTV and eBay, it started to set off warning bells, but I let him continue.

Once he described the purchase of 10 months of service up front using either the eBay credit card or eBay prepaid cards I had to interrupt. I told him that this had to be a scam.

Why would DirecTV discount your service by 50% for 2 years just because you paid 10 months up front with the eBay credit card or eBay prepaid cards? This makes no sense. What would be DirecTV’s incentive be to half your bill, and give you two premium channels for free for 2 years.

I did a quick internet search for “DirecTV eBay promotion” which quickly confirmed that this was a scam.

This thread on eBay’s forum even has comments from people that fell for it and were parted with their hard-earned money.

Conclusion

According to what I’ve read, this scam has been going on for years.

I suggested that he pull out one of his bills and call the number on it and ask them if this promotion was legitimate. At least this would guarantee that he is talking to DirecTV.

He did as I suggested, and the representative knew nothing about it. There was no DirecTV eBay promotion and their never had been.

My friend also found out that the 2 premium channels that the scammer had promised had in fact been turned on at their regular monthly price which isn’t free.

The real DirecTV representative said that he, my friend, had called earlier and activated them which of course he hadn’t.

To make matters worse, NFL Sunday Ticket was also turned on and this is a $300 per year add-on package.

He promptly requested that all 3 packages be cancelled immediately, which the representative took care of while he was on the phone.

Apparently by my friend giving the scammers his name, DirecTV account number, and telephone number, they were able to activate these channels by posing as him.

It could have been much worse though. Had he decided to apply for the eBay credit card, he would have had to give these criminals more personal information which could have been used to steal his identity.

At the very least, had he purchased the eBay prepaid cards and provided them with the card numbers and PINs they would have effectively stolen $457 that could be used to make purchases on eBay. Either way, it would be a win-win for the thieves and my friend would be out the money.

I share this as a reminder to be vigilant at all times. Sure, we’d love to be able to trust that people are honest, but the reality is that there are many that aren’t.

My friend got out of this one with minimal damage, but a good deal of inconvenience.

He says he’s learned his lesson, though sometimes that easier said than done.

Until next time…

If you enjoyed this article, or maybe hated it, and would still like to read everything that Medium has to offer, then I would appreciate it if you would subscribe using my referral link below.