Couple swindled out of a whopping $44K in Facebook password scam: ‘I’m not going to trust a lot anymore’
They got caught in the worldwide web.
An elderly Oregon couple fell victim to a crook who swindled them out of their life’s savings — using a sinister Facebook scam.
The trouble began when an anonymous septuagenarian couple from Portland were trying to sell a few items on Facebook Marketplace, but the husband had forgotten his password, NewsNation reported.
He went to Google for Facebook customer service — unintentionally winding up on a phony imposter site that had a 1-800 number listed as part of the ploy.
“They convinced me that his credit card had been hacked,” the wife told the outlet.
Fearful of the circumstances, they followed instructions from the cyber criminal — who was posing as a tech support specialist — and clicked on a dangerous link.
By doing so, “they could have control over my laptop and they could talk to me on my cell phone,” the wife said.
Tthe couple was then shown pretend fraudulent activity on their bank account. And that’s when things took a turn for the absolute worst.
“They had me wire transfer a total of $44,000 to clean everything up,” she said.
These financially devastating events are occurring more and more, according to the FBI.
Fraud complaints from targeted senior citizens to the bureau’s Internet Crime Complaint Center climbed 14% in 2023. Losses from victims increased 11% — to a shocking total of $3.4 billion.
The Oregon case has taken its toll on the health of the victims, too.
“The last two weeks have been very stressful. I generally run 110/72 blood pressure,” she said.
“My blood pressure last week was close to 200/75…I’m not going to trust a lot anymore.”
