Macomb woman warns of Spotify scam

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A Detroit area woman thought she was communicating with someone from a popular music streaming service. 

Oleta Vickers says a representative from her bank gave her a phone number -  apparently not knowing the number linked her directly to a number known online for scamming people out of their money.

It was supposed to be an easy fix - cancel an extra account associated with her digital music service Spotify.

"I felt completely violated and devastated," she said.

But it turned into anything but. Unable to find a customer service number for Spotify last Thursday, Vickers called her bank to cancel the account.

The Huntington Bank representative tried to help by giving her a Spotify support number she found online. Vickers called and would soon watch her money disappear.

"I said okay here is my card number," she said. "All of a sudden on my computer screen he is going through buying gift cards to Target and iTunes and all of a sudden he pulls up our bank account and all of a sudden I saw our bank account go into the negative. I immediately started screaming at the guy on the phone and said 'Stop what are you doing?'"

Vickers trusted the number because her bank gave it to her. But once the scammers had her bank information and control of her computer - she says they wiped out her account stealing more than $900 and even tried to get more.

"I was like stop it, I didn't give you permission to take money out of my account, put it back," she said. "He said your card is bad now, you need to give us another bank card to replace it and I said no."

Vickers immediately hung up and called Huntington Bank who looked into it and eventually discovered the original bank representative who tried to help her, never verified that number.

And when FOX 2 called it was clear the ambiguous help line was just a front.

"My name is Tony ..."

FOX 2: "From what ..."

"The number you dialed, don't you know what number you are calling," the voice said.

FOX 2: "Nine-hundred, 24 dollars was taken out of this woman's account from a person at this phone number, was that you?"

FOX 2: "Can I speak with your manager?"

At that point, hold music of "Don't worry be happy" starts playing. A second call led to hold music and another hang-up.

Luckily while FOX 2 was at Vickers' Macomb home, she says Huntington Bank reimbursed her and is now investigating with police.

In the meantime, Vickers wanted to warn others. 

"I don't want other people to get scammed," Vickers said. "It is the worst feeling in the world when you are down and out on your luck and you are down to your last $20 and you're trying to cancel $9.99."

If you look it up, Spotify only provides an address for a contact, FOX 2 tried to contact it through Twitter and has not heard back.