A business owner who fell prey to a scam that traded on the Elon Musk brand is warning others to be vigilant.
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Jovie Bargwanna is well known in the Orange business community in NSW's Central West having opened her first Subway store about 20 years ago.
She's also opened a second Subway in North Orange.
Despite her business experience Mrs Bargwanna fell prey to an online scam on December 21, losing $300 just days before Christmas and can credit her caution that she didn't lose more money.
"They are getting more sophisticated," she said.
"People need to be aware."
Due to her businesses, Mrs Bargwanna is in a good financial position so was able to take the $300 hit to her bank account but said many other people in the community would not be in the same position.
The following day I went to the bank right away and told them what happened, and they cancelled my bank card.
- Jovie Bargwanna
"Just imagine you are a woman with a few kids, and you will make some money and then some asshole takes your money," she said.
Mrs Bargwanna said the scam she fell prey to was called Quantum AI about an Elon Musk investment targeting Australians that used images and an interview of the multi-billionaire CEO of Tesla, founder of SpaceX and Twitter owner.
"It's Elon Musk, he's not a small-time businessman," Mrs Bargwanna said.
"If you look at the internet, Youtube, Facebook, it's got all this information on Elon Musk investments, it's all different ones. I watched it and my husband watched it."
She said after looking around and seeing the story advertised across a variety of social media platforms, she eventually watched a Youtube video.
Mrs Bargwanna then clicked a link relating to a video and received a call from a man with an English accent who said he was based in Melbourne.
After talking with the man, she agreed to give the investment a try and agreed on a sum of $250.
"I said I would just try a small amount," she said.
However, once the man had her credit card details, the screen on Mrs Bargwanna's tablet went black, and she realised something was wrong.
She tried to call the number the man had called her from but discovered the number was disconnected.
"I knew right away, oh s--t, you got me," she said.
"I told my husband about it, and he said go to the bank and they stopped my card.
"I felt stupid."
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A check of her bank account revealed the $250 had been in US dollars so $300 was missing from her account and it had been withdrawn by I Bite Technologies in Dubai.
"The following day I went to the bank right away and told them what happened, and they cancelled my bank card," she said.
"Luckily it was only $300, for some really poor older women, $300 is a lot of money."