TRENTON, N.J. (Legal Newsline) – Members of the Geek Squad at Best Buy swindled $30,000 from a New Jersey couple, a lawsuit recently removed to federal court alleges.
Senior citizens Joseph and Christine Marmon filed a fraud lawsuit in Gloucester County Superior Court, and the company on April 22 removed it to federal court. It names John Does as defendants as the couple attempt to figure out their identities.
They had a protection plan on their computer and called the Geek Squad on Feb. 15. A John Doe remotely accessed their home computer to diagnose the problem, the suit says.
“Plaintiffs did as directed, whereupon defendant Doe 1 took remote control… and told plaintiffs that he could see that plaintiffs’ computer was being ‘hacked’ by a third party who was trying, at night, to get into plaintiffs’ personal bank account,” the suit says.
A second Geek Squad employee told the couple to enter their password on their bank’s website so she could see if any money had been stolen, the suit says. She then told the couple to leave the computer on all day every day so Best Buy could monitor the bank account to catch the alleged hacker.
But afterward, the Marmons’ computer was locked up and they could not access their bank account, the suit says. The second Geek Squad employee told them Best Buy’s security team had captured two people trying to access the bank account, the suit says.
Ultimately, Doe 2 told the couple Best Buy would put $50,000 in their account to entice the hackers, in addition to the $30,000 already there, they say.
That amount was never deposited and the Best Buy employees wiped out the original $30,000, they claim.