FRAUD FRIDAY: Fake Store Front Scam

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
You are about to hear a feature that was created
to expose the scammers, thieves, and con artists among us.
The dialogue and temperament about to be used by Hollywood
Hamilton does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of iHeartMedia.
This is fraud Friday.

Speaker 2 (00:20):
Sammy, what have we got this week? What's going on? Well?
This week?

Speaker 3 (00:23):
As we head into the holiday season, beware of the
fake storefront scam?

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Oh yes, oh yes, okay, all right, yes that these
things are popping up all over the city right now
and maddling you from Tampa, Florida or what it says
here Tampa. What's up?

Speaker 4 (00:40):
Just moved to New York for work. I am currently
in the South Bronx living with a friend for now.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
So all right, Madeline, what happened?

Speaker 4 (00:50):
So the whole thing is so yeah, But so what happened?
We found this up? Oh my gosh, I'm like, I'm
I'm so sorry, I'm like tripping on my words.

Speaker 2 (01:01):
No, it's okay, it's okay, take your time. I want
you to take your time.

Speaker 5 (01:05):
Okay, let me try this again.

Speaker 2 (01:07):
That's okay.

Speaker 4 (01:08):
We found a storefront that looked like a legitimate branch
of an Apple store, just a smaller version. There were
only two employees. They they both looked like, I don't know,
they came from a different country.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
All right, So what did you buy, Madeline?

Speaker 4 (01:26):
I bought an iPhone for myself. I bought Christmas gifts
for some friends and family, two iPads, three AirPod proses.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
You got?

Speaker 4 (01:41):
The deals were so great? Yeah, and like the AirPod
pros were only fifty bucks. Normally they're over two hundred and.

Speaker 2 (01:49):
Okay, and there's no difference between Canal Street and this
little pop up. What was some of them? Was it?
Were they wrapped? Well? What was it?

Speaker 4 (01:57):
Absolutely identical plastic? The wrapping, the logos, the graphics, every
single thing looked legitimate.

Speaker 6 (02:06):
How did you realize that they were not real Apple products?

Speaker 4 (02:10):
I wanted to register my iPhone because that was the
one thing I was keeping, and you know, I went
onto the website to do it. It just wouldn't let me.
It wasn't recognizing the serial number. And then I called
customer service. They said, I hate to break it to you,
but it looks like you've been scammed. The serial number

(02:30):
does not exist and this is not a genuine Apple
as you can imagine. I was furious. So I immediately
walked back to the storefront, you know, the next day,
because it was already late.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
And you want your money back? Yeah, I can imagine.

Speaker 4 (02:50):
I wanted every penny back. I was so mad. And
it was gone. It was literally like there was no
trace of it.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
It was so the store was gone, rolled up gone. Okay,
well fake storefront scam here what it's called the fakes?

Speaker 4 (03:06):
I was baffled A week ends up going by my roommate,
who's also been trying to help me out with this.
She gets word from a friend of hers that there
is another pop ups a two miles away in Claremont Village.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
Sammy, I'm sorry for stopping, Sammy. What's this about her
being in a car? She out in front of the building. Now,
is that what's happening here? That's what's happening. That's what
this is all meant. She's in her car right now.

Speaker 4 (03:31):
Yes, there is another pop up in Claremont Village where
I am sitting right now.

Speaker 2 (03:37):
Wow, all right, so my gosh, yeah, all right, all right,
So you're gonna wait, what are we gonna do? You're
gonna we're gonna go? Can you We need to know
if this is the same guy, right, this is the
same guy that ripped you.

Speaker 3 (03:53):
You have a strong suspicion that this is the exact
same dude running the same game just a mile away.

Speaker 2 (04:00):
All right, most of the story I'm hearing for the
first time. I know you've been speaking with Samantha all week. Madeline.
It is an apple store. Is that correct, Madeline? That's correct.

Speaker 4 (04:08):
It looks exactly the same.

Speaker 2 (04:10):
Okay, all right, and you're in your car right now.
What we're gonna need you to do is put us
on speakerphone, go back into this store right now. First,
you're gonna tell me if you identify this, if this
is the same guy, and if it is the same
guy that ripped you off, I want you to do
me a favor. I want you to take your phone
and I want you to hand it to him with
the speakerphone on. Okay, do you understand, I understand?

Speaker 5 (04:33):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (04:33):
How much money was it, Samantha? What was a total amount?

Speaker 3 (04:36):
It was eighteen hundred and change he got her for
Come on.

Speaker 2 (04:39):
Oh gosh, all right, what do you want to do, Madeline?
Do you want to We can, we can make a
go at this, but this is pretty are you parked
in front of directly in front of this fake store.
Or where are you parked?

Speaker 5 (04:53):
I'm literally just two cars down from the store.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Don't me know when you're in the store.

Speaker 5 (04:59):
Okay, okay, I'm at the door.

Speaker 2 (05:12):
Okay, Now before you go in, can you look in
and can you tell me if you see the same
guy anywhere? Is it glass? Is it is it? Is
it a window? Is it a what? Is it clear? Okay?
That what? What's that? It's that is? That's the same
guy in Claremont Village. Do me a favor, put me

(05:35):
on speakerphone and go inside the store and and just
hand him the phone.

Speaker 4 (05:41):
Do you remember me from last week? You offered me
that myself.

Speaker 2 (05:46):
I want to confront the guy. She's I know, but
she's Madeline. Give him the phone. Tell him you have
somebody that wants to speak to him. I don't want
you to get in a confrontation with this guy. Give
him the phone.

Speaker 5 (06:00):
Son wants to talk to you. Okay, that's the phone, Yes,
the phone.

Speaker 2 (06:04):
Hello, Hi, who's this?

Speaker 5 (06:08):
This is who is this?

Speaker 2 (06:11):
My name is Sean Hamilton. I'm a private investigator here
in the Bronx. You're sitting right there in front of
a client of ours, and we have reason to believe
you are operating you are currently operating a fake storefront business.
We need to talk to you right now about this.
This is not a real Apple store.

Speaker 4 (06:27):
Apple.

Speaker 2 (06:28):
What's your business Apple verification number? What's your store number
for Apple?

Speaker 6 (06:32):
No?

Speaker 2 (06:33):
I know, but what is your Apple store number? What
is the number of your store representing Apple? What? What
is that you're supposed to have?

Speaker 5 (06:40):
I'm not I don't give number like that.

Speaker 2 (06:42):
You are standing in front of a client of ours
was ripped off eighteen hundred dollars a week ago from
another store, just like the one you're operating right now.
Take me off speaker phone.

Speaker 4 (06:52):
I'm here, I'm listening.

Speaker 5 (06:53):
Who are you?

Speaker 2 (06:55):
You're representing Apple? You're not with Apple whatsoever? We know it, Madeline.
The woman in front of you right now is a
client of ours. We want her money back or we're
coming down there. We're gonna shut you down and we're
gonna take you in.

Speaker 6 (07:06):
Yeah, it's gonna happen.

Speaker 2 (07:08):
Now.

Speaker 6 (07:08):
You know that the iPhone that you sold her is
not a legitimate Apple phone.

Speaker 2 (07:15):
It's not it's not an Apple product. This is business.

Speaker 5 (07:19):
What's it makes?

Speaker 2 (07:22):
I can't understand a word you're saying right now. We
want our money back. We want our money back. Okay, well,
we're gonna give it back. Do me a favorite semantics
get NYPD. We're gonna go down there, right We're gonna okay,
we're on our way down there right now. We're gonna
shut you down. We're shutting you down. What sir, We're
gonna make this right right now. Just give her money back.

(07:44):
She wants eighteen hundred and How much money is Samantha?
How much money is it? It's eighteen fifty six, eighteen
hundred and fifty six dollars. I need to see the
det Also, Anthony, you want you to do me a favor.
I want you to call precinct. What's the precinct down
there in South Bronx forty second. We're getting ready to
come down with the forty second precinct right there in YPD. Yeah,
what what if you showed me the seat?

Speaker 5 (08:07):
I will on it.

Speaker 1 (08:09):
That's it.

Speaker 5 (08:10):
Okay.

Speaker 2 (08:11):
I would reverse charge on the credit card. Okay, now, okay,
all right, okay.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
I'm gonna run. I would run reves charge charge.

Speaker 2 (08:21):
Okay, all right. I want you to return the money
back into her account.

Speaker 4 (08:26):
All of that automatically go back.

Speaker 2 (08:29):
Okay, all on our credit card. You're going to do
business day tom telling it's move faster than that.

Speaker 3 (08:36):
Okay, he'll run it and give you the paper receipt.

Speaker 2 (08:39):
But you're not gonna be It could be up to
two days before she sees any of that money though, right, But.

Speaker 3 (08:44):
She'll get a paper receipt that shows the credit that
it's pending. At least he needs to run it.

Speaker 2 (08:49):
I heard seat. Okay, great, shut up, I give it you.

Speaker 5 (08:55):
Okay, that's gone.

Speaker 2 (08:57):
Say listen to me. If there's any funny business with
this credit car, we're coming down there right now. She
has the money, okay, all right, I leave the store, Madeline, leave,
grab the phone, I take it, take us off speakerphone,
and walk out of the store. Take us off speakerphone. Okay,
just walk out of the store right now.

Speaker 6 (09:19):
Okay, all right, Oh you did great, Madeline. Yeah you
really did. Absolutely. Samantha's right, you did. You were really strong,
you were very assertive.

Speaker 2 (09:28):
Matt. Take a breath. Take a deep breath, Take a
deep breath.

Speaker 5 (09:32):
I'm walking towards my car.

Speaker 3 (09:34):
All right, All right now we're just gonna wait twenty
four hours and make sure it actually ends up, you know,
crediting your credit card.

Speaker 2 (09:40):
That's the best we can do. There's nothing else we
can do. I mean there's nothing else. Yeah, because you know,
this guy's shutting down. He's shutting down, right, I'll close up,
roll up and go to the next spot. Oh my gosh.

Speaker 3 (09:51):
No, And we're gonna tell our buddies at the NYPD
what's going on as well.

Speaker 2 (09:54):
Let's get the precinct on the phone right now. That's
let's give head right now. Yeah, we have to protect people, Madeline.
We're going to take you off the air right now. Samantha,
our executive producer, is going to talk to you right
now and walk you through the next step. Okay, okay,
Hey you guys, you guys are amazing, all right. Fraud
Friday