An elderly widow from North Carolina fell for a heartless scam and lost her life savings.
The woman, who wishes to stay anonymous, was scammed out of over $17,000.
Heartbreaking footage from her doorbell camera shows the moment she innocently and unknowingly handed over a huge amount of cash to a scammer.
She’s not the only person who has fallen victim to this large-scale scam operation.
It all began when she tried to log in to her bank account, but found that she couldn’t access any accounts. She called a number in her contacts she had saved as the bank.
The representative on the line explained that her accounts had been frozen because of a suspicious PayPal charge the day before. Then, she was transferred to what she believed to be the PayPal fraud department.
After hanging up because the call quality was bad, the lady redialed the number and was told that she had to pay an $82 charge that would be refunded – but first she had to follow the caller’s instructions, which included downloading things on her computer.
‘I typed $82.00, and I immediately looked up to the screen and it says, $18,000, and then it goes, accept, accept, accept, just like that.’ She said she was panicking and said to the man walking her through, ‘That’s not what I typed in, that’s a mistake.’
What she didn’t know at the time was that the man had manipulated her into giving him access to her computer and that he had transferred $18,000 from her savings to her checking account.
She was hesitant to follow his instructions to go to the bank and retrieve the cash until a letter marked with Bank of America’s official logo came out of her printer, stating that there was a serious matter concerning her account.
The letter told her there had been tax issues, that her online transfers had been blocked by the IRS and that she must refrain from discussing the transaction.
Her caller ID shows that the call with this person lasted over four hours. She adds, ‘He kept saying, don’t hang up on me.’
The woman drove to the bank and withdrew $17,5000, as the man told her she could keep the extra $500 ‘for her troubles’.
When she withdrew the cash, the bank manager approached her to ask, ‘Before we proceed, are you being harassed?’
She told the bank manager she was not being pressured, as she was entirely unaware that she was being scammed. She even signed a document saying she was taking this money out under her own free will.
Upon arriving home with the cash, another notice appeared from her printer thanking her for ‘returning’ the money to PayPal, and notifying her that ‘Mr. Jack’ would be there shortly to collect the cash.
This is when her doorbell camera caught footage of a man arriving at her house to pick up the cash, which she handed over.
Thinking the day’s drama was over, she called her daughters to tell them about the ordeal.
‘Mom, you’ve been scammed,’ her daughter responded.’
The lady called the police to report what had happened and learned that she was not the only victim.
She saw the mugshot of Linghui Zheng and immediately recognized him as the same man who came to her door to collect the money.
Zheng is charged with obtaining property under false pretenses in her case, and he, along with another suspect, is also facing charges in Person, Durham, and Granville counties of obtaining property under false pretenses, accessing computers and felony conspiracy.
The total amount of money scammed by Zheng and his accomplice is thought to be close to $400,000, according to the sheriff, who says they’re currently working with NC SBI and the Department of Homeland Security to identify more victims and suspects.
The Orange County victim says, ‘It never occurred to me that there was going to be an evil person come into my life.’
Her financial loss is especially devastating because a big portion of the money gone is from an insurance policy to pay her medical bills when she had cancer last year.
She adds, ‘What I want people to know is, you know, if just because you’re tired that they don’t let you, don’t let your defenses down.’
Investigators told her that she will likely not get her money back, as much of it was already gone by the time the suspects were arrested.
The suspects are still behind bars at the Person County Detention Center.