A woman on Greenview Road in Northbrook, Illinois, got an email that looked like it came from Geek Squad. It was about an annual subscription. She rang the number listed, asked for a refund, and let the person on the line put an app on her phone. By the end of several calls she had sent $92,240.
Northbrook police logged the report for 9:55 a.m. on October 29. The caller had made the refund seem too large and asked her to send back the difference. When the voice wanted still more, she went to her bank, where staff told her what had happened.
Why the name works
Geek Squad is real. It belongs to Best Buy and does its work in stores, in homes and online through remote access. That familiarity is exactly what scammers borrow. The technical reality is dull: the email itself usually carries no malware. The number is the trap.
The pattern is one the US Federal Trade Commission describes by name. A message, sometimes with a PDF, says a large charge or a protection plan renewal has gone through. Call within 24 hours to cancel or dispute it. The FTC lists Geek Squad, McAfee and Norton among the brands used on such notices. Whoever answers is polite and sounds like a help desk. They ask to see your computer, find a problem or a wrong charge, then steer you towards your online bank.
The refund trick comes next. The FTC says the caller may claim you were refunded too much and must pay the difference back. The FBI has described a variant in which the caller moves the victim’s own money between her own accounts so a refund appears, then asks for the supposed extra. The money that leaves is real, and gift cards, wires, crypto and payment apps are hard to claw back.
Checking without calling
Never answer the question “did I buy this?” through the message. Leave the PDF and links alone, and do not reply, since a reply tells them your address is live. Open your bank’s app, or type its address yourself, and look for the charge. Sign in to your Best Buy account the same way and check orders and subscriptions. No matching charge or plan means the invoice was bait.
If you need the store, take its number from its official website, not from the message and not from a search ad. The FTC warns scammers can buy search results so their number appears for tech support searches. And if you are unsure, ask a friend or relative; a second pair of eyes helps most when someone is rushing you.
If you already called
Hang up, end any remote session and disconnect the computer from the network. Ring your bank or card company on the number printed on your card. Change passwords from a different device, email first, then bank and shopping accounts, and anywhere the same password was reused. Microsoft advises uninstalling anything the caller had you install, running a full scan with Windows Security, installing updates and considering a reset of the machine.
Report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Victims who lost money are asked to file with the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, which logged 37,560 tech support scam complaints for 2023, with losses of nearly one billion dollars, across all brands and not just this one.
Sources
- Geek Squad Scam: Fake Invoice Email and Call, What to Do
- Geek Squad
- Fake Refund Turns Into Costly Scam: Northbrook Blotter
- We still recommend the Apple Watch Series 10 – especially at this price – ZDNET
- James Gunn Says Making David Ayer's SUICIDE SQUAD DCU Canon Would Leave Them “Screwed” — GeekTyrant
- 2026 Tampa Bay Lightning Top 20 Under 25: #3 Conor Geekie
Photo: Jonas Tünte / Unsplash (Unsplash License)
