An 85-year-old Long Island woman is fighting to get her money back after she fell prey to scammers who got her to wire $49,000 to an account in Florida.
“You beat yourself up, how could I be so damn stupid?”
She only wants to be known as Lee, but it was back in March when the Long Island woman spotted a pop-up window while she was browsing websites online.
“It was red and it took up much of the screen,” explained Lee. “I tried to exit out but it didn’t work.”
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On the pop-up was a phone number, which for reasons she still doesn’t know… she called.
“They said 'this is Microsoft' and 'we want you to know your computer has been hacked, but we are going to help you get it back,'” she explained.
Lee says the person on the phone told her they would set up a sting to catch the hackers but she would need to send $49,000 to a bank in Hialeah, Florida.
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The plan was elaborate. Lee says the person on the phone gave her a script of what she should tell the bank workers if they asked. And they told her not to go to her usual branch, but a different one because the workers might know the hackers.
“If I had I gone to my branch, the gentleman who knows me there, he would have probably said 'Lee what are you doing are you sure you want to do this?'"
She went to a different branch where the teller there also asked if she was sure about the transaction. Lee authorized it and four hours later, she came to a realization: “I said holy, I think I’ve been scammed!”
Lee called Chase Bank to report fraud, but she didn’t stop there. She filed a report with the Nassau Police as well as police in Hialeah — the bank where she had sent the money was in Florida.
And then she called the information technology worker who set up her home computers. He told her to immediately shut down her computer. Immediately she got a phone call: "You just turned off your computer."
Lee has been having trouble getting answers from Chase Bank, all while hating herself for falling victim this scheme.
“I don’t think of myself as that stupid we know the thing your son’s been kidnapped we have your grand children, I’ve gotten those I don’t fall for them but this,” said Lee. “Hook, line and sinker. I could not have been more dumb.”
A Chase spokesperson provided a statement which read, “It’s unfortunate that our customer fell victim to a scam. We are working with the recipient bank to try to recover the funds and will credit the customer if any are recovered.”
On Microsoft’s website there are warnings about such scams. The company telling users “any communication has to be initiated by you” and “don’t call the number in the pop-ups. Microsoft’s error and warning messages never include a phone number.”
