‘Don’t do it’: Uber driver helps stop woman from getting scammed

SEDONA, AZ (KPHO/Gray News) — An Arizona woman in her 90s may have lost everything if not for a quick-thinking Uber driver.

According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, the woman from the Village of Oak Creek, southeast of Sedona, received a call from a fraudster pretending to be from Wells Fargo.

The caller ID showed a legitimate-looking Wells Fargo phone number and the caller told the woman her debit cards and personal information had been hacked, deputies said.

The scammer told the woman that she had to hand over her debit cards to a courier, but not to tell anyone.

“This guy just blew me away. He knew it. He really knew what he was doing,” she said.

While she was waiting for a courier, an Uber driver named Michael showed up in the area looking for a passenger. He saw the woman approach the car with a walker, carrying a bag and holding her phone.

The woman asked if he was the courier and he said he was an Uber driver.

“And I said, ‘You’re not being directed to, like, give gift cards to somebody.’ And she was like, ‘I can’t speak to you about this. I have some kind of confidentiality that I have to follow,’ ” Michael said.

Michael was a former police officer and recognized the warning signs that the woman was being scammed.

“So I was like, that’s a scam. I said, ‘Don’t do it.’ And she kind of stopped. She handed me the phone and I heard a click. I heard a noise. And I said, ‘It’s dead,’” Michael said.

Thankfully, the woman followed Michael’s advice and she didn’t give a stranger her cards or information.

She was very grateful to Michael.

“I think the good Lord sent him there just to stop me from doing whatever I was doing,” she said. “And I’ll be very well grateful he was there, but angels are everywhere.”

The sheriff’s office wants to remind the public of the tactics scammers use, including:

• Pretending to be from banks and using spoofed phone numbers that appear real
• Creating a false sense of urgency by claiming personal information or debit or credit cards have been hacked
• Demanding victims not tell anyone what is happening
• Telling the victims to get a bag and wait for a “courier” to pick up the items