An 81-year-old woman from Grovetown fell victim to a sophisticated scam that drained her of approximately $22,000 over several days, leaving her deeply shaken and financially devastated. The incident, reported to the Columbia County Sheriff’s Office, occurred between June 27 and June 29.
The scam began when the woman encountered a pop-up message on her computer claiming it had been hacked. The message instructed her to call a toll-free number supposedly linked to Microsoft for assistance. Desperate to regain control of her computer, the woman complied.
Upon calling the number, she spoke with a man identifying himself as Daniel Bryan. Bryan convinced her that her computer had been hacked multiple times and assured her he could resolve the issue. He also mentioned that the banking department would contact her once the problem was fixed.
Soon after her initial call, the woman received a follow-up call from a woman identifying herself as Paige Smith. Smith informed her that to receive a refund for the supposed security breach, she would need to purchase gift cards totaling approximately $22,000 from retailers such as Apple, eBay, and Walmart. Smith instructed the victim to provide the account numbers from the purchased gift cards as proof of purchase for the refund process.
Unaware of the scam, the woman complied and used her Capital One and Chase credit cards, as well as her Truist Bank debit card, to purchase the gift cards. Each time she bought the gift cards, Smith promptly requested the card numbers, further solidifying the victim’s belief that she was on track to recover her lost funds.
It wasn’t until several transactions later that the victim began to realize she had been deceived. By then, the scammers had vanished, leaving her to grapple with the devastating financial repercussions.
The victim’s ordeal serves as a stark reminder of the dangers posed by sophisticated scams that prey on trust and exploit vulnerabilities within our community.