SAN ANTONIO – A local elderly couple says their life savings was wiped out by on-line scammers.
“At the time we were so frightened, we didn’t think,” said Judith Mijarez.
Judith and her husband George Mijarez didn’t think that a ring of online criminals would take them for all their life savings.
The phishing scheme started with an unusual alert on their tablet.
“I was on my tablet, it just kept flashing back up at me so I called the number and it said apple customer support,” said Judith Mijarez.
The fake Apple Customer Support Representative on the line was the first person Mijarez dealt with in this charade. Another imposter followed up, a woman claiming she was a Wells Fargo Fraud Officer.
“She proceeded to tell me there were charges on my account, quite a bit for child porn,” Mijarez added.
She said the scammers then connected her to a third fraudster that tricked her into sharing her personal information. This time it was a man claiming he was a lawyer with the Justice Department that told Judith and George to withdraw their money because their social security number had been compromised.
“So scared, we went to the bank and withdrew the money and they were going to put it in a safe place so that it would be protected,” explained Mijarez.
Judith and George say the on-line scammers, posing to be government officials told them to drive to the neighborhood Food Mart on Bandera and Old Prue Road where there’s a bitcoin machine to transfer $14,000 to a secured bitcoin account.
“This was our first dealing with bitcoin and didn’t know what was involved,” said George Mijarez.
“So in the course of the two days they had us empty our account to the tune of $43,000,” cried Mijarez.
Looking back, Judith says the whole ordeal was fishy and she’s upset that she ignored the glaring red flags.
“I took her word that she was with Wells Fargo, I should have hung up, called Wells Fargo and asked,” said Mijarez who wants to make sure nobody in the community has to go through the same unfortunate experience as she and her husband George did recently. Mijarez says, she’s grateful for the support of her family, especially her children.
The FBI says, taking the right security measures and being alert and aware when connected are key ways to prevent cyber intrusions and online crimes. Learn how to protect your computer, network, and personal information.
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