A Statham man called a telephone number that popped up on his computer screen recently and was told his banking account had been hacked by someone 7,000 miles away in the capitol city of China.
The 73-year-old man and his wife went to their bank for what they thought was an attempt to thwart the Beijing hacker by withdrawing $28,000. They promptly went to Athens and deposited the cash in a bitcoin machine.
But they lost the money. And the hacker hit pay day.
That is the narrative as outlined in an Athens-Clarke police report showing the Barrow County couple had fallen victim to a fraud perpetrated over the telephone and computer.
The man’s wife told the officer she called the bitcoin company, but was told “there are no refunds.”
The scam occurred Sept. 8 while the man was looking at various websites at his home in The Georgia Club, a housing and golfing community off Georgia Highway 316. The computer screen froze and a telephone number popped on the screen, according to the report.
Fraud: Athens woman sells home to give money to con artist
Sextortion on the rise: More and more teens in Athens area falling prey to online scams
The man called the number and was directed to whom he believed was his bank’s customer service, who explained the nature of the Chinese hack, according to the report.
Police said he was advised to remove $28,000 cash and take the money to a bitcoin machine on Tallassee Road in Athens, where it was deposited.
The couple has also filed a fraud report with the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office.
The FBI has offered these tips:
- Do not send payment to someone you have only spoken to online, even if you believe you have established a relationship with the individual.
- Do not follow instructions from someone you have never met to scan a QR code and send payment via a physical cryptocurrency ATM.
- Do not respond to a caller who claims to be a representative of a company where you are an account holder and who requests personal information or demands cryptocurrency. Contact the number listed on your card or the entity directly for verification.
- Practice caution when an entity states they can only accept cryptocurrency and identifies as the government, law enforcement, a legal office, or a utility company. These entities will likely not instruct you to wire funds, send checks, send money overseas, or make deposits into unknown individuals’ accounts.
