6 On Your Side: Scammer uses app to take victim’s money

COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (WOWT) - After realizing she used the wrong address to ship her daughter’s valentines gift Judy Small searched online for an eBay number and got a scammer on her phone.

“Ma’am this is eBay support, I am the customer executive,” said the scammer.

That’s bogus, but Small found out too late. The scammer had convinced her to download an app named Anydesk onto her phone.

“And Anydesk is what gave him control of the phone,” said Small. “And as I sat here, he kept doing all different things on my phone. Contacts were flipping up.”

Small also watched her account balances go down despite the scammer saying the opposite.

EBay told 6 News it had nobody employed at the company by the name of Russell McGuire, the name the scammer used.

People at the Intelligence Systems Lab at Bellevue University said this kind of scam is nothing new.

A former military intelligence officer now professor and cyber security expert, Ron Woerner, warns don’t be talked into downloading the key to your accounts.

“Even if you are not sharing your passwords with them, if they have that remote access, they can see stored passwords within your browser,” said Woerner. So, if they’re asking you to download anything additional, call time out and question it. Ask somebody else.”

Small was not able to convince the scammer to return her money, so she deleted the app.

The cyber security expert says if a scammer gains control of your phone turn it off immediately and borrow another to call your bank. Just deleting an app isn’t always enough to cut off the scam.

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