An Evans woman was scammed out of nearly $400,000 after her computer was hacked and she contacted a man through a pop-up alert.
The 74-year-old woman called the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office last week to report the fraud and loss of money from her Charles Schwab account. She said the incident happened on Oct. 30. That’s when she received a pop-up from what appeared to be with Microsoft advising that her computer was hacked. So she called the number on the pop up and spoke with a male.
“(He) advised her that her computer has been hacked,” the report says. “The individual stated that someone was trying to hack into their Charles Schwab account and she needed to move the money.”
So the victim called Charles Schwab and transferred $380,356.17 into a bitcoin account that the individual advised her to do. But the next day, the account was empty and her money was gone.
The woman told deputies that she has contacted Charles Schwab, and they are doing an internal investigation. They advised her to file a police report as well.
The woman was not the only recent victim in Columbia County. A 59-year-old Grovetown man said he was working on his computer Nov. 22 when a popup from Microsoft appeared. He clicked on it and was prompted to call a specific number.
The victim called and spoke with an individual identifying himself as Gary Williams. He allowed Mr. Williams to access his computer to install “anti virus” for $198, the report says. The victim later discovered that $13,000 had been transferred from his bank account to an unknown account.
“(He) contacted Mr. Williams again, who transferred him to the billing account,” the report says. “At that time, he was instructed withdraw $15,000 from his bank account and put it into a bitcoin machine, and he complied with this request. (The victim) stated that he has had health issues and was confused and was unsure why he made this deposit.”
