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An ELDERLY woman living on the Upper East Side fell victim to a scam that had her forking over tens of thousands of dollars.
The scammer managed to convince her that her computer had a virus and that charges on her account from Moscow could make her a felon in a pornography trading crime.
Gloria, who adopted a pseudonym to protect her privacy, told Upper East Site the story of how she got swindled by a man claiming to be a Citibank worker.
The afternoon of March 29 was like any other for the 85 year old who was reading a New Yorker article when she clicked a “continue” button at the end of the page convincing her that her computer had a virus.
She thought her device was being attacked by the malicious worm Stuxnet and her efforts to rid the computer of it led her to contact support.
This is when she reached the so-called Citibank employee.
She was first persuaded to send over $13,000 from a cryptocurrency bank in New Jersey, then up to $20,000 in bundles of $100 bills, reported Upper East Site.
The transactions had her using passwords like the word “camera” befoe handing over cardboard boxes full of money.
By the end of the scam, Gloria managed to withdraw $44,500 in cash from her bank account after being pressured into packaging the money in unmarked boxes and handing it off to couriers over a series of three transactions.
“It felt like I was hypnotized,” Gloria told Upper East Site. “[It felt like] I was being victimized by some powerful force.”
But when she awoke the next morning, the spell had been broken.
“I thought, ‘Oh you idiot, you’ve just been scammed!'” she told Upper East Site.
Seeking direction the folliowing day, Gloria called her bank.
By that Monday, she reached out to law enforcement who opened an investigation into where her money went — one that’s still ongoing with little chance of her recovering the funds, reported Upper East Site.
Digital Communications & Crime Prevention Officer Detective Anthony Nuccio of the Upper East Side’s 19th Precinct told Upper East Site there’s been a recent uptick in scams similar to Gloria’s.
There have been four cases in his own precinct in under three months and two in Harlem, he told the outlet.
The scams often claim to be coming from popular companies like Microsoft or Apple and all incorporate pop-up computer messages, prompting users to call numbers that result in users withdrawing, and handing over large sums of cash, Nuccio told Upper East Site.
Phone scam statistics
Americans are bombarded with three billion spam phone calls a month. What are the figures regarding the number of victims and the amount of money lost to fraudsters
- In 2022, Americans lost some $39.5 billion to phone scams, with 68.4 million US citizens affected, according to TechReport.
- The average phone scam victim lost $567.41 each in 2021, a major rise on the 2021 figure of $182 per victim, according to Hiya.
- The majority of scams happen over the phone, with fraudsters twice as likely to call compared to text in 2021, as reports the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
- In 2021, the US saw a 56% increase in spam phone calls with 60% of those being robocalls.
- US residents experienced an average of 18 spam phone calls per month, although some experts believe the true figure may be as high as 31 per month.
- Many phone calls from reputable businesses may be marked wrongly as spam, but 38% of companies have no idea whether they’re being marked as “potential fraud” or not, according to Hiya.
- Never hand over any personal or financial information if you suspect a phone call is a scam. For instance, your bank will never ask you for such details in full over the phone.
- To cut down on spam phone calls and scams, sign up for the Do Not Call Registry. Telemarketers, by law, will need to check that list before they call you up.
- Downloading third-party apps such as Hiya, Nomorobo, or Truecaller can help filter out annoying spam calls.
- Try not to share your phone number unless you have to, especially online or with sketchy sources.
The U.S. Sun continues to cover an uptick in scams affecting innocent users.
A woman in San Diego received a message about suspicious activity on her account and later spoke with a man who claimed to be from her bank in the hopes of solving the situation.
When she hung up the phone and called her bank, Cornett was informed that a $6,000 loan had been taken out in her name.
Dating app users should also be aware of the latest romance scams which rely on perceived trust and romance to steal users’ money.
These scammers typically operate via fake accounts on apps like Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, WhatsApp, and Facebook.
Experts provided eight red flags you should be aware of when dodging dating app scams.
