Netgear makes some of the best routers on the market, but clearly, their attorneys needed a bit of an assist last summer when it came to protecting its customers. Scammers pretending to be Netgear employees had been preying on vulnerable clients by selling them extended support packages that never existed. It wasn't until an intern stepped in that the lawyers were actually able to take meaningful action.
Every time the legal experts got close, the scammers would delete their fake websites and move on to the next, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars in the process. Piling customer complaints eventually forced Netgear to take a radical step and bring in Wyatt — a 16-year-old intern who joined the company in the summer of 2025.
Wyatt, full of youthful zest, was able to keep up with the scammers much better than the lawyers since he was internet-savvy. "What I needed here was someone that was a digital native, who could compete with the scammers on that, just digital fluency," said Morgan Nickerson from K&L Gates LLP, the law firm working with Netgear on this case.
Wyatt would go on these phishing websites and pretend to be an unsuspecting customer, luring in scammers to take advantage of him. Initially, the con artists were able to figure out the ploy, as Wyatt wouldn't have crucial details such as router serial numbers when prompted. He'd just say he was having issues with video games, but that wasn't enough to fool these experienced players.
Eventually, however, armed with enough equipment, he was able to reel them in. Once the fake invoices for these fake support packages started rolling in, the bulk of the job was done. The scammer had become the scammed, and the investigative duties transferred to Netgear's lawyers. Since these receipts had account numbers and email addresse, the firm could now trace the information back to its roots.
Netgear's attorneys filed a federal lawsuit and subpoenaed these fake websites, forcing them to give up bank details. They were even able to trace some of the funds back to India. Netgear won its case in Dec. 2025and was rewarded over $860,000 against several of the companies the scammers used for funneling the money. The strategy here wasn't to being the scammers to court and prosecute them, but to go after their profits.
“I made minimum wage. I think I made around $800 from the whole internship, which I was extremely grateful for,” Wyatt said after the whole ordeal. This is just a small story within the grander issue of internet theft where over $16 billion worth of losses were reported just last year to the FBI. By opting for an out-of-the-box approach, Netgear was able to help its customers and offer an unforgettable summer experience to Wyatt.
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