An 88-year-old woman from Manatee County lost over $27,000 in an \u201celaborate tech support scam,\u201d according to the Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scam began when the woman was deceived into believing that her computer had been used to authorize a transaction for child pornography and that she would face criminal charges if she didn\u2019t pay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Deputies said a message, appearing to be from Apple Support, popped up on her computer, warning of security threats. When the woman called the listed number, she was told she was under investigation and that her financial information was at risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Under the scammer\u2019s instructions, she withdrew cash and delivered it in envelopes to a person waiting at the gate of her residential community.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cFraudsters use this tactic to scare vulnerable victims into thinking they have a computer problem, then escalate the fear with threats of public humiliation and criminal prosecution to steal their money,\u201d deputies explained in a news release.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Authorities urge residents to contact law enforcement immediately if they suspect a scam. The sheriff\u2019s office advises keeping anti-virus and security software up to date, resisting pressure to act quickly, and never sharing information with unknown individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If a scammer gains access to a device, it\u2019s important to change all passwords immediately.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An 88-year-old woman from Manatee County lost over $27,000 in an \u201celaborate tech support scam,\u201d according to the Manatee County Sheriff\u2019s Office. The scam began when the woman was deceived into believing that her computer had been used to authorize a transaction for child pornography and that she would face criminal charges if she didn\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4558,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[116,121],"tags":[33,158,182],"class_list":["post-4557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-scammer-news","category-tech-scams","tag-scam-awareness","tag-tech-scam","tag-tech-support-scam"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4557"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4559,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4557\/revisions\/4559"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ripandscam.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}