Martin McCoy Was called by a scammer after he bought a brand new laptop. The scammer told him he was with tech support, so McCoy let him take control of his computer. After a minute, he got wise to the scammer and pulled the plug.

“When it was all done, I went down to the bank and basically told them and they put a flag on my account,” says McCoy.

Unfortunately, the scammers thought McCoy would fall for it again. So they kept calling.

“It happened three times the other day.”

They called so many times, McCoy finally got mad.

“He kept on trying and I said why don’t you leave me alone? And he said ‘I call you every day!’ and hung up!” says McCoy.

Experts say, if you fall for one scam, you’ve become a prime target and the calls will keep coming.

“Any of your pertinent information they can get on you is actually put on a list that they call a mooch list,” says Detective Laura Soulier with the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office.

That list is then sold to other scam artists. And the more they call, the more likely you are to believe their stories.

“If you were willing to give them $10, then maybe if another story comes through, you’re willing to give them $1,000,” says Soulier.

Soulier says scam victims aren’t likely to tell anyone because they’re too embarrassed. But it’s important that you tell somebody because they can help prevent you from becoming another victim.