LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A Las Vegas woman is warning others after a routine attempt to pay her car insurance bill turned into a costly scam, one that started with a simple Google search.
WATCH | Shakeria Hawkins shows how this can happen to anyone and what to watch for before you pay a bill:
71-year-old Katherine Butsinas contacted Channel 13 after accidentally paying $127.26 to scammers she believed were GEICO representatives.
“I saw a telephone number, and it said 800-777-GEICO under Google,” Butsinas said during a phone interview.
Butsinas says she searched online for a phone number to pay her bill over the phone, something she’s done many times before.
“Sometimes I pay online and sometimes I look up the number and call,” she said. “But that’s the first time I ended up with a wrong number.”
The person who answered the phone sounded legitimate, she says. But soon after, things took a suspicious turn.
“They said they were going to send me a five-digit code,” Butsinas said. “They texted it to me, and once I sent it, I guess they had access to my information.”
Butsinas later learned the phone number she called was not connected to GEICO at all. When she tried to recover her money, her bank told her the transaction was authorized, and therefore her responsibility.
Cybersecurity expert Cliff Steinhauer says scams like this are becoming increasingly common, especially as scammers pay to place fraudulent ads at the top of search results.
“Bad guys can take out ads just like anyone else can,” Steinhauer said.
He says scammers are also using artificial intelligence to impersonate companies and personalize ads based on browsing history. One of the most common versions involves tech support scams.
“That’s when you type in a website, Google, Amazon, click the first link, and that link is malicious,” Steinhauer said. “It takes you to a fake pop-up.”
Another major scam tied to these tactics involves bank fraud. Fake pop-ups may appear as virus warnings, claiming your device has been taken over and instructing you to call “Microsoft” when it’s actually a scam call center trying to steal personal information.
“And then you’ll get a call from someone pretending to be Wells Fargo or another company,” Steinhauer said. “They’ll already have enough information to seem legitimate.”
Steinhauer says the safest way to avoid scams is to avoid clicking sponsored links, double-check website addresses, and use official company apps when paying bills. He adds that fake websites can be especially difficult to spot on a cell phone.
When paying bills or contacting a bank, he recommends using phone numbers listed on official billing statements or the back of your card, not numbers found through search results.
“It’s just not right,” Butsinas said.
Experts say if something feels even slightly off, stop immediately and verify the information through a trusted source before sending money.
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