Support a Senior Citizen Recover from Financial Loss

I was scammed out of my life savings. I am writing this as much as a cautionary tale for others, especially senior citizens, as a plea for help. Here’s my story, told so that it does not happen to you, and if you are able and willing, to ask for contributions to rebuild my life savings. Any donations more than the amount I lost, I will donate to my local animal rescue organization.

I received an email from PayPal stating that a charge of $576.20 had been made to my account, and if I did not make that charge to call a certain number. Being very frugal and responsible, I called immediately. The “gentleman” (and I use that term loosely), who answered identified himself by name and PayPal employee number, giving him some credibility (or so I thought). He told me that he could see that a PayPal charge of $180 had already cleared my bank, though I was looking at my account online and did not see it yet. He asked if he could access my computer remotely, and I stupidly said yes. He walked me through the steps to have PayPal reimburse me for the $180, and I saw a pop-up which required that I fill in the amount to be refunded, so I typed in $180.00 and hit send. Somehow (I believe it was an auto-fill), the amount registered as $18,000.00. When he saw that, and we both saw on my bank account that there was a deposit of $18,000.00 made to my checking account, he flew into a panic and said he needed to speak with his manager and that he was in a great deal of trouble for letting this happen.

When he came back on the line, he said that since PayPal was an international company, to transfer an amount that large, my bank would automatically lock my account for 24 days. Being unemployed, I cannot afford to have my accounts locked for so long, so I followed his instructions to repay PayPal for their deposit. His instructions kept me on the phone for over 3 hours. I was to go to my bank, withdraw the $18,000.00 and go to a bitcoin machine and purchase bitcoin to deposit in PayPal’s account.

Yes: RED FLAGS! But I didn’t heed my gut instincts or the red flags. I duly went to the bank, because I had seen the $18,000.00 deposit from PayPal with my own eyes, and transferred the money from my savings account and wrote a check for the entire amount, then went to the bitcoin machine he specified and deposited $17,850.00 to the account he texted me the QR code for. Fortunately, the bank gave me three $50.00 bills which the machine would not accept, so at least I had that much left.

Yes: STUPID!

When I got home and checked my bank account, there were 2 withdrawals for $250.00 each, which he claimed I should approve because that was how they would refund the money to me, so I approved them, though I was at that point very afraid.

That conversation finally over, I went about my evening, very nervous that I had been scammed. An hour or so later, I received another call from another “gentleman” who gave me his name and PayPal employee number, claiming that he was the former guy’s Managing Supervisor, and that the previous guy had scammed me and was being fired. He tried to walk me though establishing another bitcoin account so that I could be reimbursed, but I was tired at that point and told him we would have to continue the conversation in the morning.

In the morning, I checked my bank account online and saw that the PayPal deposit which I had seen that evening was not there and that $18,000.00 had been transferred from my savings account, giving me the money to cover the check. Furthermore, I saw the two $250.00 charges had gone through as well.

Devastated, I called my city police and told them what had happened and they confirmed that I had been scammed. I contacted my bank immediately, and because I withdrew the money in cash, that there was no way to stop or repay me what was lost. I filed a statement with the Federal Trade Commission, the FBI, and my local police. The bank cancelled my accounts, issued me new ones (I am still waiting for my new debit card), and I deposited the $150.00 left over from my horrible mistake. I have changed my account passwords on every account. I took my computer the Geek Squad and had it scrubbed of the 200+ viruses and had the operating system replaced (another $300.00).

The second “gentleman” has continued to call me, even leaving me a voicemail after many attempts to reach me and having his call refused. I visited the local police detective who had taken my report to see if they could trace the call or if I should return his call. He told me that the scammers had ways of making their call appear to be from a number which was not really the number they were calling from, so there was really no reason to speak with him again. He recommended that I invest in a credit monitoring service (another $20.00 per month) and block the numbers they had called from.

So, in total, I am out $18,650.00, my entire life savings. I am a senior citizen with no 401k, not retirement account, no savings left, and no job at the moment. Things feel pretty bleak and I do not want anyone else to fall victim to the kind of scam that got me.

If you receive an email from somewhere that you have an account DO NOT call the number in the email. Call the institution by another channel, a number you find on their legitimate website, or their customer service line. DO NOT FALL FOR WHAT I FELL FOR!

Again, I am writing this as much as a cautionary tale for others as a plea for any help you might be able and willing to provide.

Thank you.