Elderly Texas couple are scammed out of life savings after crooks posed as Apple and Wells Fargo

An elderly Texas couple lost their life savings after falling victim to a scam where fraudsters posed as Apple, Wells Fargo and a Government department. 

Judith and George Mijarez, from San Antonio, lost a total of $43,500 to the elaborate fraud, which took place over two days.

It also involved the couple traveling to a nearby Food Mart, where they were tricked into transferring $14,900 to crooks via a Bitcoin ATM machine.

The couple were reeled in by an unusual message that popped up on their tablet computer. Judith told News4SA. ‘It just kept flashing back up at me so I called the number and it said Apple customer support,’ she said. 

It comes amid a scam epidemic in the country. Last year alone, the FBI reported Americans lost a huge $10.3 billion to internet scams – with fraudsters coming up with increasingly sophisticated ways to lure in often vulnerable victims.

After the couple responded to the first message, another fraudster followed up – this time claiming to be from Wells Fargo bank.

‘She proceeded to tell me about charges that were made on my account,’ Judith told the outlet, ‘quite a bit for child porn.’

She said the scammers then connected her to a third fraudster. The man claimed to be a representative for the Justice Department, and said her social security number had been compromised, and that she should withdraw her money.

The crook told Judith he was going to put her money into a safe place where it would be protected. 

The fake government worker told the couple to travel to a nearby Food Mart and transfer $14,900 to a secured cryptocurrency account using a Bitcoin machine. 

‘In the course of the two days, they had us empty our account to the tune of $43,500,’ Judith said. 

Looking back, she said she is devastated she ignored the red flags and warning signs. 

‘I took her word that she was from Wells Fargo,’ Judith added. ‘At the time we were so frightened, we didn’t think.’

The FBI has issued advice on how to steer clear of internet fraudsters. Phishing scams were the most common online crime last year, with 300,497 victims reporting losses of $52 million in 2022.

A single mom told DailyMail.com how she lost $80,000 to a fraudster she met on a dating app after being conned by a cruel ‘pig-butchering’ scam sweeping the country. 

Kate, 41, was lured in by a crook posing as a 36-year-old wine trader from Seattle who persuaded her to make bogus cryptocurrency investments with the promise of big returns.

The con is known as ‘pig-butchering’ because victims are ‘fattened up’ with a fake romantic relationship before being butchered by fraudulent investment advice.

Officials urged Americans to keep systems and software up to date, install a strong, reputable anti-virus program, create different passphrases for each online account and never click the link in an unsolicited text message or email.

Earlier this year, Verizon also revealed the most common scam texts to look out for – including those that claim you have won a contest you did not enter.

The telecoms giant urged users to pay close attention to so-called ‘smishing’ attacks, where a scam message is sent via SMS or text.

Fraudsters typically send messages that appear to come from reputed organizations to try and dupe unsuspecting victims into handing over personal information such as bank details, credit card information or even a social security number.

Attackers will often try to play with your mind by asking you to take immediate action, Verizon warned. If a message is asking you to do something urgently, it’s likely to be a con.

Scammers often pretend to be your bank or a Government agency. They may say your credit card has been blocked or there appears to have been a fraudulent transaction – and ask you to provide information to unblock or reverse the payment.

Remember that that your bank will never message you to ask for sensitive information such as your banking password or PIN. Attackers can only victimize people who respond to these messages.