BY DAN HILDEBRAN
A Starke woman said she fell for a scam that initially cost her $199, and she wants to alert other residents of the ploy.
Rebecca Burkett said she and her husband received a call on their landline with a caller ID listing Dish Network as the caller. Her husband answered the phone, and the caller said that the provider needed to adjust their receiver because of satellite changes.
“Somebody took control of our TV set, and (my husband) started pushing buttons and doing what they told him,” Burkett recalled. “And then he looked at me, and he said, ‘They’re going to charge me $199 for what they just did.’”
“It sounded legit,” Burkett said. “It really did. And it said Dish Network on our telephone (caller ID). So, we did it. We gave them our credit card information.”
Burkett said that the following day, Discover Card’s fraud department called to confirm the transaction, and she told the company the charge was correct.
However, Burkett’s husband later started having second thoughts, and Burkett called Dish Network about the call. The provider stated they did not call the family and added that if they charged her for additional services, they would have put the charges on the next monthly bill instead of asking for credit card information.
Burkett said she then got back with Discover, which reversed the charge. She added that Dish Network is coming to her home to reverse any settings the caller may have put onto her receiver.
“If they fooled me,” she said, “I think they could fool anyone. It sounded so legitimate.”
