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An 89-year-old Massachusetts woman was conned out of $19,000 after being targeted in a bank scam.
The Hingham Police Department says the woman received an email that claimed to be from her bank and was notifying her of unusual activity on her account.
The woman called the number on the email, which the scammer claimed was the number of the bank’s fraud department. On the phone, the scammer said the woman’s account had been compromised and that she needed to withdraw her money, and they instructed her to go to two nearby bank branches and withdraw $34,000.
The scammer stayed on the line with the woman as she followed the instructions, though the victim was only able to withdraw $19,000. The scammer later sent someone to the victim’s home to pick up the cash.
Similar bank fraud scams, which often target senior citizens, have bubbled across the US this year.
For example, two New Jersey brothers are facing criminal charges over allegations they posed as employees at Apple, the FBI and other entities to scam elderly women out of nearly $400,000.
Abhishek Barvalia, 31, and Tushar Barvalia, 32, of Rutherford, New Jersey, are accused of conning four women out of $392,904 by convincing them that their bank accounts were compromised and to send their funds to them for safekeeping, according to Brooklyn District Attorney Eric Gonzalez.
To gain the victims’ trust, the scammers allegedly pretended to be an FBI agent, a bank representative and security from technology firms Microsoft and Apple.
