'I'm a finance journalist who wrote about con artists. Then I got scammed.'

Charlotte Cowles wasn't 'supposed' to fall victim to a scam.

She's a journalist who writes a financial advice column for New York Magazine. She's even written about her readers' experiences with scams before.

But Cowles became vulnerable to being conned — just like anyone can.

It all began on a normal weekday morning at the end of October 2023.

Cowles was at home getting ready for the day ahead. She was dressing up her two-year-old son in a pizza costume as his daycare was celebrating Halloween. Her husband had left early in the morning for work, and Cowles was set to work from home after dropping off her son at daycare. 

The phone rang around lunchtime.

"The first caller was a woman who said she was calling from Amazon about suspicious activity on my account. I had received outgoing calls of this nature before, like related to suspicious activity on credit cards, so I didn't really think anything of it," Cowles tells Mamamia's No Filter this week.

The woman on the other end of the phone seemed professional and articulate. She assured Cowles that the call was "being recorded for quality assurance".

"She said there were thousands of dollars worth of electronic equipment that had been bought under my Amazon business account. But I told her I didn't have a business account. She then said, 'Well it looks like one has been opened under your name so we should report this as identity theft.'"

The psychological deception had begun.

"She said identity theft like this had been 'so prevalent lately' and that it was being investigated at a federal level. She asked if I would be willing to speak with him, this federal investigator. It didn't seem entirely out of the realm of possibility that there would be some kind of special investigation into this issue, given that Amazon is an enormous retailer."

Watch: the impact of financial scams. Post continues below.

Cowles was then introduced to 'Calvin Mitchell', who purported to be from the US Federal Trade Commission. 

He knew Cowles' name, and he knew her address. He had her social security number. He knew she lived with her husband and son, and he knew the names of these family members. 

This man had all of her information. She figured it must mean he was the real deal.

"He said I was being investigated for fraud, money laundering and other things. He said my family and I were in danger and that we were being watched by a criminal organisation that had stolen my identity and was using it for these crimes, like the laundering."

It sounds like a movie plot. But for Cowles, it was a real, living nightmare.

"Calvin was very authoritative and he spoke with a lot of confidence. While I was on the phone with Calvin I was texting my husband, and he was asking what was going on and if I was okay. Then Calvin told me that I couldn't tell anyone what was happening and that if I continued to talk to my husband, he would be implicated in the investigation," explains Cowles.

"They had found my weak point and they pressed on it. I was asking if there was an office we could speak about this at, or in person, as I was very uncomfortable doing this all over the phone. They would say, 'We don't have time. We have to act quickly. You are in danger. Your son is in danger.'"

The scam was becoming elaborate and terrifying by the minute. 

Cowles wondered whether she was being conned. But so far, they hadn't asked her for money or told her to buy crypto — if anything, they'd sounded worried for the safety of her assets. 

Calvin told Cowles he would pass the investigation onto "one of his CIA colleagues". Cowles says she felt so frightened that she didn't feel like she could call their bluff. She also had a profound feeling of not being safe, especially given the suggested threat that her family was facing.

After hours on the phone, Cowles was told her assets needed to be frozen, so that they could catch the people who had stolen her identity.

Given her accounts were about to be frozen, she figured she needed to quickly get some cash.

Calvin asked her how much money she would need to live for a year if it took a long time for the investigation to go through the courts and the process. Cowles estimated around $50,000. She had squirreled this money away after saving tirelessly. 

"I was surprised the bank teller let me withdraw that amount. I'd never withdrawn more than $1,000 from the bank before. The teller raised her eyebrows and looked surprised but she didn't ask me what it was for. She also gave me a sheet of paper that was sort of like a 'watch out for scams.'"

Cowles walked home from the bank. She was told by Calvin's "CIA colleague" that another one of his colleagues would meet her at her apartment block at 5pm, to guide her through the next steps. Cowles grew even more scared. 

"He told me to walk out to his car, put the money in the back seat, and not to say anything to him. They had told me the $50,000 would be brought to a safe house where it would be secured, and then I would secure a treasury cheque, because my identity had been compromised," she tells No Filter.

"They told me I would also receive a new social security number, and that once I did, I could deposit the money into a new bank account and go from there."

Cowles was left in complete and utter shock. She had just handed over $50,000 in cash to a stranger in the back of a car on the street outside her apartment, begging them to keep her family safe. 

It had all occurred within six hours of receiving that first phone call.

Charlotte Cowles was the victim of a scam. Image: Supplied.

"I felt pretty numb. One of the scammers gave me details of an appointment with the Social Security Office and said they would help me the next morning," she says.

"I called the number again after the call cut out and a different scammer I had also been speaking to answered and said they wouldn't be able to get me that appointment for the next day. That was the first time they had been inconsistent with their information."

It suddenly dawned on Cowles that everything was not as it seemed. She had been conned.

"On the one hand, I was much safer than I thought I was — I wasn't being surveilled, my identity hadn't been stolen. But I had lost $50,000. It was a horrible swap."

Cowles called her husband sobbing. They put their son to bed, and called her brother, who is a lawyer, as well as her parents. She then called the police.

"They came right over and took a report, but they were like, 'You are so stupid.' I of course know that government agencies do not ask you for money. But under this particular circumstance, it felt different."

Cowles has told her story publicly in recent months. She says often people are shocked that she is a victim of a scam and coercion. 

"I'm not old. I know how to use the Internet. I can deploy critical thinking. People think this is something that just happens to 'dotty grandmas who don't know how to open their email'. There is so much stigma."

Cowles has since learned that a lot of her personal information and data were readily accessible to scammers, given she has an online persona related to her work. 

"The psychological aftermath of being scammed is devastating. It's such a violating experience and a lot of people have real anxiety and paranoia afterwards. They also feel ashamed, so these scams are wildly under-reported as a result," notes Cowles. 

Sadly, Cowles won't be getting her $50,000 back.

She called her bank and made sure the rest of her assets and information were secured. She filed reports with the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission. She also ran anti-virus software on her laptop to check for malware. She then changed the locks on her apartment's door.

But there is very little chance her scammers will be brought to justice.

As Cowles tells No Filter: "It was one of the worst days of my life, and I don't wish it upon anyone. But if telling my story helps lift the guilt and shame for others, that's also very gratifying."

You can listen to the full conversation on No Filter now. 

Feature Image: Supplied.