Man loses over $1 million after customer service scam leads to romance scam

When Joe Subach was having trouble sending money to a friend through the Apple Pay app, he searched online for the company’s customer service number. What Subach didn’t know at the time, however, is that the number he found was fake. That fake number led Subach on a path that would ultimately cause him to lose $1 million.

Subach called the number he found, believing it was for a legit company. He then heard a woman’s voice on the phone.

“The lady answered and said, ‘Good morning. I’m Daisy from Apple. How can I help you?’” Subach said.

Subach told NBC10 Daisy asked for his name and then put him on hold.

“She came back and she said, ‘You have a red mark next to your account. That you’ve been hacked and your identity theft has been compromised,’” Subach said.

Daisy then told Subach he had to get ahead of the hackers and directed him to buy gift cards at various locations in his area. She then told him to scratch off the backs of the cards and send her the numbers. She also had instructions for Subach in case store employees questioned what he was doing.

“She said, ‘Joe, if they ask you any questions, just tell them that you’re buying it for a friend or something like that,’” Subach said.

Daisy told Subach that everything she was telling him to do would help him protect his money. Yet while Subach believed she wanted to protect it, in reality she wanted to take it. She then ramped up the scam by making him believe they were in a relationship.

Over the course of months, Subach said Daisy became a constant phone companion.

“She said, ‘We have to monitor your phone 24-7,’” Subach said. “And so her number was scrolling at the top of my phone the whole time.”

She texted him, “I adore you,” and sent him pictures of food as they continued to talk everyday. They even cooked together while on the phone.

“So we would go through, you know, I’d cut up vegetables and send her pictures,” Subach said. “And we would like cook together in the evening.”

The scam escalated even more when Daisy asked him what he had.

“And I told her I have gold and silver with Equity Trust Company,” he said.

Daisy then asked him to get all of his gold and silver – valued at $780,000 – out of the depository. He was then told to wait at his home for someone to pick up the precious metals.

“So, she would tell me, ‘OK. The guy’s coming. He’s in a gray SUV or something.' Whatever,” Subach said. “And they would pull out in front of the house. A couple of them come in the driveway.”

Subach loaded his gold and silver into the back of the vehicle. The person driving it likely wasn’t Daisy but instead a “money mule.”

“So we look at the money mule dynamic in two different buckets,” Nicole Senegar, the FBI Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Philadelphia, told NBC10.

Senegar said some money mules know exactly what they’re doing and they take a cut of the money for getting the money back to the scammer. In other cases, the mule might also be a victim.

Senegar told NBC10 Subach’s case isn’t typical as it moved from a basic financial scam to a romance scam to one in which someone actually showed up at his home.

“This is a very unique dynamic where at the onset, the individual is offering to protect the assets but just as with any other scam, the person needs to be very, very aware that there’s no other individual institution that can protect their finances or assets like themselves,” Senegar said.

Subach realized he had been scammed when he ran out of money and Daisy stopped calling. He then reported what happened to the police. So far, no arrests have been made. In all, he said he lost more than $1 million.

“I worked 43 hard years for that,” he said.

He’s now warning others.

“If I can get the word out and if one person I can stop from falling into something like this,” he said.

Here are some steps you can take to protecting yourself. When looking for a number online, make sure you’re visiting the actual company’s website. If you have any questions, contact your bank or financial institution. Finally, never meet a stranger to hand over money or valuables.