Scammers cheat one Northbrook resident of $47,000; another targeted for $24,000

Chicago Tribune

a day ago

Northbrook police reported that three residents were recently targeted in computer fraud and/or identity theft scams amounting to thousands of dollars each. In all the incidents, the victims found messages or problems on their computer screens or in emails.
In the first instance on June 2, a resident in the 2800 block of Canterbury Drive told police she found her home computer had been locked and an onscreen message prompted her to call Microsoft to fix the issue, according to a police report. When she called, the person who responded said her bank accounts had been compromised. They told her to call her bank and provided a phone number. When she phoned that number, the person responding instructed her to move her money to a different account and withdraw money, according to the report, and she complied. She withdrew $47,100.00 and deposited into bitcoin machines per their instructions, per the report, but when they asked her to withdraw more, she became suspicious and called police.
'As with many money scams, getting the money back is difficult on many levels,' said Northbrook Police Community Relations Supervisor Richard Rash. 'In this case, the complainant did lose that money because she deposited it into a bitcoin machine per the 'scammer's' request. More than likely she was given a specific account to deposit it into. The money then can be shared amongst Bitcoin wallets. The scammer can then withdraw the money or move it somewhere else.
'Being able to trace it is sometimes difficult. Most of the offenders are overseas and use fake IP addresses to do their businesses.'
In a second instance, a resident in the 3700 block of Pebble Beach Road found that more than $24,000 had been charged to his credit cards that were attached to his Amazon account, according to police reports. When he called Amazon, the person responding told him someone had hacked the account and changed the email, phone number and address, per the report, and the illegally purchased merchandise had been shipped to Miami.
According to Rash, once the complainant disputed the charges with the credit card companies associated with the Amazon account, they took the charges off the bill and asked their fraud department to look into it. The credit card companies cancelled the cards to prevent them from being used for any further fraud.
In a third incident, a resident on the 2400 Block of Burgundy Lane said she had not used PayPal in several years, but received an email stating she had several outstanding balances from PayPal, according to the police report. She called the number listed and the person who answered the phone told her there had been fraud on the account and she needed to withdraw money from her bank to fix the issue and, per the report, she withdrew $6,000. The phone respondent advised her to go to a business and deposit the money into a bitcoin machine, according to police, but when she arrived there, the business owner demanded to see her ID. The complainant got nervous, left the store and contacted her son, who advised her it was a scam and to call the police, per the report.