A 76-year-old woman was allegedly scammed out of $8,400 after an anonymous caller tricked her into allowing remote access to her computer, Bloomington Police Department Sgt. Dana Cole said.
She told police she first received an email March 30 saying she needed to call a number or be charged $550.
The woman called and she followed the person on the phone’s instructions, giving the person access to her computer and IU Credit Union account, police said.
The person told her they had meant to deposit a $600 refund in her account but had accidentally put $6,600 into her account.The person told her to write a check for $6,000 and pay $110 to overnight-ship it to an address in New Jersey.
Later, the person called and said he had deposited $2,900 into her account by accident. He told her to go to Target and buy $2,400 in gift cards.
She bought the cards and read the numbers to the person over the phone.
The 76-year-old reported the incident to police April 16 once she realized it was a scam. The money she had been seeing in her bank account was money from a line of credit from her bank, not money being sent to her.
The money was likely sent somewhere overseas, Sgt. Dana Cole said.
