Alex Delgado, a longtime Fresno news anchor, fell for a scam that cheated her out of $72,000.
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"I feel dumb, that I should have been smarter about it. I am in a very vulnerable place," said Delgado, according to a report from Your Central Valley.
Delgado, who spent 22 years in the news business before leaving in 2020, said she called a number listed in a text message after it claimed there was suspicious activity on her account.
Delgado said that the text was sent from someone claiming to be from the stock trading app Robinhood in March. The message said suspicious activity was spotted on her account and asked her to call a number to resolve the issue.
Without second-guessing, and in an attempt to protect her finances, Delgado obliged and dialed the number. The free call ended up being incredibly costly.
Veteran News Anchor Scammed Out of $72,000
The person who answered offered to transfer her to a fraud department and claimed someone in Asia was accessing her account from an Android phone. Delgado was told her money needed to be moved to a different account while the matter was investigated.
"They said, 'Not a problem, let me transfer you to the fraud department,' so it was very legit. It sounded very legit," Delgado said.
Over the next two days, Delgado said the scammer guided her step by step to transfer the money over the phone. Delgado tried several times to end the call prematurely, but was repeatedly convinced to stay on the line.
By the time Delgado realized she was being scammed, her money was already gone. She said the scam felt convincing because the caller sounded professional and used technical language to appear legitimate.
"If it can happen to me, and I am familiar with these, I covered it for the news, I hear about it all the time. It can happen to anyone," the former news anchor said.
She tried to contact the legitimate Robinhood through their app, but they were unable to assist. Delgado then reported the fraud to multiple institutions. However, it appears that the $72,000 she lost is gone for good.
"Unfortunately, don't trust anybody,"
Delgado advised her TikTok following.About 3 in 10 Americans have personally lost money or personal information to scams, according to a new AP-NORC survey.
