Possible pay-by-text scam in downtown Fort Myers may have cost woman nearly $1,000

Pay-by-text parking may have cost one woman nearly a thousand dollars after her credit card was hacked.

The woman said fraudulent charges appeared on her credit card from Kentucky and Italy after parking in downtown Fort Myers last weekend.

The credit card expert we spoke with today says the answer to that question is no, but digital credit card fraud is very real.

It was real for the two women we spoke with who said they paid for parking in downtown Fort Myers and then received fraudulent charges, resulting in their cards being compromised.

We’ve all been in Elena Kezelis’s position: on the hunt for a bite to eat while also searching for and finally finding the perfect parking spot.

“We pulled over to one of the pay slats in Zone 114 where you can pay using a text, and that’s what I did, I use the text system. It requires you to include your email address, and I paid with a credit card. I got confirmation that, in fact, it had gone through,” Kezelis said.

This is where our stories may differ from Kezelis.

“I learned yesterday from my credit card company’s fraud department that my credit card had been compromised. They went ahead and did a $990 charge from a company in Kentucky. They also put a new charge from Italy,” Kezelis said.

But her story is not that different from Jean Klein’s.

“I got my parking, but in the meantime, my husband got a text from our bank saying that there was an unauthorized charge. They denied that charge, and they can’t. We canceled the card, and I had to get a new card.”

Both women told us their credit card companies believe the unauthorized charges may have been related to their parking payments.

Kezelis filed a police report; Klein did not.

We reached out to the city, and they say the parking company is working with the customers to investigate.

The parking company told WINK News they couldn’t discuss individual customer issues but said we could put them in touch with the customers.

In the meantime, Nerdwallet’s credit card expert Sally French said people need to be careful. Although these stories may be uncommon, financial scams are not.

“According to a Nerdwallet survey, 54% of Americans say at least one financial scam has affected them in the past two years, and of those 18% say they actually lost money in a financial scam,” said Sally French from Nerdwallet, “so it is important to always be on alert. In fact, the median amount of money lost in those financial scams was $325, and what Nerdwallet found is that about 1/3 or 32% lost more than $1,000.”

The Fort Myers Police Department said Elena’s report is the only one they have on file related to this issue.

We also reached out to Elena & jean’s credit card companies. Jean’s company said they will review this issue and contact her