• I am a smart, capable adult. I thought I was too clever to get caught up in a scam. I was wrong.
• It happened when I turned to social media to seek help with a travel-related issue with my car rental.
• Next time, I'll remind myself to take a breath and go slow when someone comes to my aid.

I know full well that new internet scams are popping up every day. I'm suspicious to the point of being cynical and I've worked in online media for more than 15 years. I thought I was scam-proof. I was wrong.

Stressful travel made me feel desperate

At the tail end of spending time back East with my family, my son got sick on the day we were supposed to fly home to LA, so I delayed our flight for two days. The plane ticket was easy to switch with no extra charges, but when I went to extend my rental car, the company website said they'd charge me more than $3,000 for a rental car that was supposed to be just $51 per day.

I was panicked. I told myself this must be a mistake and called their customer service number for help. After an hour of getting redirected to automated lines over and over I felt sick. I couldn't pay for this — it would cost more than our entire trip. If I could just get in touch with a live person, I had hope that everything could be worked out.

I turned to social media for help

I remembered I had had luck contacting corporations through social media before and found the rental company's official Facebook page. I posted a message about my situation with a plea for help.

I was flooded with relief when I received an immediate reply from a profile with the title "Customer Service". The person on the other end asked for my phone number and email address, and I got a call minutes later. With a shaky voice I explained what was going on and the voice on the other end of the phone — someone named Kenneth — apologized for the error and said he could help.

And that's when he got me. I was so desperate to connect with a live person, that I was willing to follow every instruction that he gave me to rectify the situation.

Kenneth (who knows if that was even his name) said that not only would I not be charged the exorbitant fee for the extra two days, he would make my extra two days complimentary just for my trouble. All I needed to do was confirm my credit card number.

He said for safety reasons I shouldn't tell him the number over the phone, but instead download an app called Remitly where the number would stay confidential. He said he would send a $100 refund to my card to make up for the extra two days I'd be charged. Looking back, I now realize this doesn't make much sense and it wasn't even the right amount. It should have been $102 if he was crediting me for two days. But, I didn't even hesitate for a second. No warning bells went off in my head or my gut. I was just so glad to finally be getting help. I followed his instructions.

And then, it happened again

Then I got another Facebook message from a different "Customer Service" profile stating they were trying to contact me but I wasn't picking up the phone. "It's OK," I typed. "I'm talking to someone right now."

"Hang up," they wrote. "Hang up the phone."

A chill crept over me from head to toe. "Oh my God," I wrote back. "It's a scam. I just gave this guy my credit card number."

I hung up the immediately and the phone rang again. Now someone allegedly name James was available to help me. Now I was snapped out of my daze and hung up on him as well.

Finally, I heard from a real person

Eventually, the rental car company wrote back on Facebook saying none of the messages or calls had come from them, and that I'd have to work the extra fees out at the rental counter when I returned the car.

I was humiliated and even more panicked now. I called my credit card company and cancelled the card.

I spent the next 36 hours berating myself for being so foolish. When I arrived at the rental car counter, I was able to find a manager who cancelled the $3678.07 charge that caused me to reach out to customer service in the first place, but by then I was a complete wreck.

In the end, the scammers ended up charging me $100 and I don't know if I'll ever get that money back, but realize I'm lucky that's all this annoying lesson cost me.

I'll do things differently next time

The next time I'm up against a stressful customer service issue, I'll remind myself to take a deep breath and go slow. When I feel that sense of relief that someone is coming to my aid, I'll always take a pause and verify that they are who they say they are, especially when I'm reaching out via social media. And the next time someone calls me cynical, I'll tell them "It comes from experience."