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It all started when a woman from Yorktown was contacted by a "human piece of garbage" who claimed to be tech support from Google or Microsoft, and told the victim that he needed to access her email and bank accounts to prevent a virus from compromising them, Yorktown Police said in a post on Wednesday, Dec. 14.
As part of the ruse, the victim purchased close to $2,000 in gift cards on three separate days and then sent scanned pictures of these cards to the scammer, authorities said.
The scammer also managed to convince the woman to wire $31,000 and take a cash advance of $18,000 from a credit card. Thankfully though, a family member with the power of attorney over the victim's finances was able to stop this from happening, resulting in the woman only losing the $2,000 from the gift card purchases, according to police.
Police are still investigating the incident.
Authorities say that the case serves as a reminder to discuss potential scams with vulnerable relatives who might not know better.
"Please, have the discussion with family and loved ones about scammers. It truly is our best defense. If something is too good to be true or too bad to be true, it usually is not true!" Yorktown Police said.
Police also recommend that if residents receive a cold call or experience a pop-up on their computers, they should call a friend, loved one, or even police if they are suspicious in nature.
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