A staff member with the University of Georgia men's basketball team was scammed in March by someone claiming to be UGA Athletic Director Josh Brooks.
According to a report from the Athens Banner-Herald, the staff member, 25, lost $2,600 in the incident.
The scammer allegedly emailed the victim on March 20 asking the victim for his phone number. Four days after receiving that email, the victim received a text from the scammer, claiming to be Brooks. The scammer reportedly told the victim they were in a meeting and needed help with an important favor.
The scammer asked the victim to purchase three $200 eBay gift cards and wanted photos of the cards with the activation numbers visible. The man realized he had been scammed after speaking with others in the athletic department.
The man was scammed a second time after he reportedly reached out to what he believed was eBay customer support for assistance recovering his money. The second scammer told the victim that he would need to make three wire payments totaling $2,000 to process the recovery from the eBay gift cards.
The Athens Banner-Herald reported that the victim froze his bank account following the second incident.
