An Embarrassing Moment – A.I. and Scams 8.5.26

I almost did not write this because I did something that in hindsight seems rather stupid – and quite frankly, embarrassing. I am probably one of the few people who continues to use Direct TV.  I almost cancelled it a while back because my sons were telling me that I could get a subscription for U-Tube TV or another on-line service for half of the price.  Two have changed over to U-Tube T.V. and are very happy with it. However, unlike Direct T.V., those services rely on high-speed internet service.  In the past, we did not have high-speed internet.  So, I did not trust on-line services. The good news for us at the Lake is that we now have high-speed internet, having been converted a year earlier through a federal grant that now provides high-speed internet to many rural communities, including ours, through fiber-optic cable.

But before I signed up for one of these other services, I called Direct T.V. about nine months ago to let them know that I was going to cancel.  To keep me as a customer, Direct T.V. offered to cut my bill in half, making it about the same as one of the online services.  And because I have subscriptions to several online services including Apple and Netflix, and because I do have access to another live T.V. service through one of my sons (which may not last), I kept my subscription with Direct T.V.  as a “diversification strategy.”  Sometimes our internet service goes down.  So, it is nice to have entertainment that does not rely on internet service.

Fast forward to this morning.  I received a call that went to voice mail from AT&T (the parent company of Direct T.V.) letting me know that my 50% discount was doing to end today and that I need to call back at that same number to take advantage of another discount. So, I called back.  When I called back, there were six options, with one of the options being to take advantage of “special offers or discounts”.  So, I opted for option 5.

The narrative that follows is, believe it or not, only some of the dialogue that occurred between me and “Patrick”, the ultra-helpful and patient person who I ultimately became my “handler.”  Patrick knew everything about my Direct T.V. account including the date I made the last payment and the amount of the payment. Good for Patrick.  He had done his homework. He said that my monthly payment would go from the current $69 a month to $117 a month.  Because I did not remember the exact date that my current deal ended, I went along.  And quite honestly, I probably would have been ok with that increase and probably would have eventually switched to another provider. But before doing so, I would have called Direct T.V. yet again before cancelling.  

But then he said they had a special promotion for loyal customers.  I have been with Direct T.V. for almost 20 years. So, I would say that I have been a loyal customer. So, good for Patrick. He knew I was a loyal customer.  He said that because they were losing customers to on-line services, they had partnered with certain companies including Apple to offer a special program.  They were offering these customers a rate of $50 per month for three years.  Obviously, there is a catch.  I asked, “What is the catch? Do I have to sign a contract?” He said no.  I am thinking this is too good to be true.  But after a moment he said, “There is a slight catch. You had to pay for one year upfront.  After that, you would go to paying $50 per month after one year.”  So, I said “Fine, I can do that.  So, I guess you will just bill me for $600, and all is good?”  He said that there is another catch.  I would have to pay for it with an Apple Credit Card. He said that once I open the account with Apple and pay the bill, I can cancel the card. 

Now, my sons have done this type of thing with other programs.  And they have saved money.  One of my friends suggested that I do this with a Disney Card before we went to Disney.  And maybe I should have done so.  I think I could have saved something like $500, which is real money.  You open an account, take advantage to the short-term savings and then cancel. So, this sounded reasonable to me.  However, I had no interest in doing so.  In fact, just like the Disney Card, I have turned down all such opportunities before because I have no interest in opening another credit card account even if I can save some money.  I already have 5 credit cards through my personal accounts and two businesses.  I do not need any more credit cards!

So, I politely told him I was not interested and I will just go ahead and pay the higher monthly rate.  Undeterred, he said, “I really would hate for you to miss this opportunity.” He said that Apple has provided another way to take advantage of the offer. You can just buy a gift card and use the gift card to pay the upfront amount. Now I was really confused, what is in it for Apple?  He said that it was a way to introduce people to using Apple Gift Cards.  He said you can get these cards anywhere.  And if I would go out and buy one within the next two hours, Direct T.V. would discount the rate even more and make it an even $500, equivalent to a monthly rate of under $42 a month. 

I do not buy gift cards.  So, I said I was still not interested.  He then asked why would I not take advantage of this offer?  He then explained to me very patiently how gift cards work and how to purchase them.  He even said that I might have to buy more than one card to get to $500.  But that would be ok.  I could redeem more than one card to fulfill the payment. So, I finally relented and said, “OK, I will go out and buy cards worth $500.”  He then gave me an 800 number to call back, which he said would be accounting, and I would give them the authorization code and I would be good to go.  I then asked a favor. I said my receiver in the Theatre Room is not getting a signal from Direct T.V. and so I have been using the Direct T.V. app to get service for that T.V.  Could he arrange to fix that?  He said he would try to do so online. If he could not do so, he would send a technician out.  He even knew that under the program I was enrolled in that you are allowed two receivers in your home.  He then gave me his phone number to call back if I had any other issues with the receiver or any other questions.  He said that if another service representative answered, to ask for him.

I then asked him one final question. “Partrick, this is probably not a fair question, but why is Direct T.V. doing this?  This is quite a discount.” He said that this was a way of diversifying their revenue stream.  They were only offering this to the first 10,000 customers.  By monetizing the next 12 months of revenue now, they were guaranteeing that those customers stay on for at least the next 12 months.  In addition, Apple and other firms that they were partnering with were paying AT&T a fee for access to their customers.  As a “Businessman”, that made sense to me.  Good for Patrick, he knows some finance as well!

So, armed with my answers and smug that I was about to save myself at least $500 over the next 12 months, I promptly drove to the nearest Dollar General to buy an Apple Gift Card.  They were sold out.  Hmm.  I am thinking AT&T must have several customers in the area that they made the same offer to.  Because I was already in my car I drove to the Food Lion 20 minutes away and started looking for Apple Gift Cards.  I found them.  You could put anywhere between $10 to $500 on a gift card.  Hmm… that’s funny.  How convenient.  The most you can put on a single gift card is $500.  And then I began thinking back on my conversation with Patrick. 

As I was driving back home with my $500 gift card in hand, I had an idea.  I called the same number back that I had originally used to reach Patrick the first time.  Instead of choosing option 5, I chose option 1.  All I got was music.  I called option 2.  All I got was music.  I called options 3, 4 and 6, the same result.  These were all dead ends. I then called option 5, the option that had put me through to Patrick.  All I got was music!  And that is when I realized that there was a very good possibility that I had been scammed.  So, when I returned home, I looked at the last Direct T.V. bill and called the customer service number.  They knew nothing about an offer through Apple. They also verified that my monthly bill would not be increasing any time soon. I had indeed been scammed.

I had dodged a bullet. The only harm done was that I now held an Apple Gift Card worth $500.  No problem, I spend enough money on apple products and subscriptions to use that up within the year. So, I went to my computer and started writing this up.  Within 20 minutes I got a call back from Patrick. I picked up.  He asked if I had purchased the card. I lied and told him I had not. He then said I only had 30 minutes left to take advantage of the discount to $500 instead of $600.  He then said that he was willing to extend the offer another hour.  I said I probably would not be able to buy the card in the next hour. He was now getting flustered with me. He then insisted that I had to redeem a card by 8 pm tonight to get the $50 per month rate, and the amount required would be $600.  He then asked if I was going to redeem by 8 p.m. because if I was not going to do so, he needed to know so that he could make the offer to other customers.  I then said that I would be ok going to the higher rate. He then began to get very aggressive.  So, I hung up.  “Patrick” called back again 10 more times.  I did a screen shot of his first message. You could even say it was threatening.  I finally blocked his calls.  He used other numbers.  The last message was from “DRECTV Cancellations Department” communicating that they were cancelling my subscription and shutting off my receivers.  Classic case of using fear and urgency.

When someone is trying to scam you out of money, the first thing they need to do is build credibility.  By knowing everything about my Direct T.V. account, they did so very quickly.  I am not sure if Direct T.V. themselves were hacked, but these hackers somehow got that information through A.I. or some other means. In addition, scammers use greed and fear as powerful incentives to get you to do something that you would not normally do. In my case, it was greed (saving money) and fear (I would miss out on an opportunity). They also try to make you feel like they are looking out for you – building trust. Patrick did this by offering to fix my receiver and other means. He answered every question with patience and competency. And finally, they also try to build in urgency.  I truly believe that if there had been five $100 Apple Gift Cards at the Dollar General Store, I would have lost $500.  Thankfully, I had time while driving to Food Lion to think about my conversation.

I am not stupid.  I am careful.  Yet, I fell for this scam. Anthropic and other A.I. companies admitted recently that they had to shut down several very “smart A.I. programs” because they went rogue and broke into security systems at other firms.  What happened to me today may pale in comparison to the sophistication that future scams will use to cheat us out of our money and even our agency. In looking back at the series of events that led me to fall for this, it is easy for anyone reading this to say, “Well, that would never have happened to me.”  I used to believe the same thing.  Never again will I believe that.  And what is so scary is that A.I. will allow more opportunities for all of us to be subjected to incursions on our privacy and personal information.  At this rate, it is only a matter of time before each of us will fall for one of these.  

My only advice to myself and to others is to never make a decision based on urgency. Second, always double check through another source the legitimacy of any person or organization asking something from you – whether it be money OR information.  We think we are too smart to fall for these scams.  Believe me, I now believe that scammers of the future will know us so well and will become so sophisticated that our belief in our own intelligence may be the way they get to us. What got me was his explanation as to why Direct T.V. was doing this.  Until that moment, I was not fully hooked.  That explanation got me. It was my hubris at the thought that “I understood” his explanation is what hooked me. It was if someone knew that I like to be thought of as smart. Something to really think about.