September 6, 2022
By: Dwayne Page
A Dowelltown woman is warning others after falling prey to a scam in which she lost $5,000.
Helga Thompson said that on Wednesday, August 31, she received a call with a computer message claiming to be from Amazon, asking if she would confirm a purchase made through her account of an Ipad.
“I was just getting ready to eat breakfast about 9 am when my phone rang. It was a computer message from Amazon asking if I had made a purchase of an Ipad in New York for $1,400. If not press one. I pressed one because I had not made such a purchase. I was then transferred to someone who said they were from Amazon security. He said that he could not stop the purchase because all of my data had been hacked. In the meantime on my desk top computer I went to Amazon and saw no notice of activity. The man said that was because of the level of the hack so he had to transfer me to the Federal Fraud office. I was transferred to someone identified as Adrian Chase of the federal fraud department who said that someone had hacked into my bank accounts and was renting a car and house in my name in Texas,” said Thompson.
The scammer warned Thompson that her bank accounts and credit cards would be frozen, and that she would need to go withdraw money from the bank before this happened and put it in a Bitcoin account in order for the government to send her a debit card so she would be able to pay her bills. He also warned her to remain on the phone with him during the transaction.
“He said that they had to freeze all my accounts and credit cards. I said how would I pay my bills that were on automatic payment?. He said I would have to take the money out of my checking account at the bank and put it in Bitcoin which is a secure way to have money and the government would send me a debit card for that money so I could pay my bills. He also said not to tell anyone since my bank may be involved and that my phone may be hacked. Now all this was on my land line phone. He told me not to get off the line with him. I told him I had to drive down the road to get a cell phone signal, which I did as I went to the bank to withdraw my money. I was on the phone with him for about two hours,” said Thompson.
After realizing she had been scammed, Thompson reported the incident to local law enforcement authorities.
“I just want others to know that Amazon or any of those type companies will never call you and neither will the government so never do anything over the phone. If you get a suspicious call hang up and find the company’s phone number and call back to make sure,” said Thompson.