A 75-year-old Brooklyn accountant was swindled out of $100,000 in an elaborate scam involving a frozen computer, access to her bank account, multiple phone calls and a secret password.
“This was a very professionally done thing, which is no excuse for why I fell for it,” she told the Daily News. “I feel stupid, but I never thought something like this would happen to me.”
On July 9, while working on her HP laptop, it suddenly froze. Within minutes, the woman received a call from a man posing as a Microsoft employee who told her the computer had been infected with a virus.
“The call came in that said, ‘We’re sorry, we’re going to give you a refund on your premium for virus protection,’” the victim said.
A screen popped up on the laptop and she was directed to enter the amount of money she had paid for virus protection, $10.
“The next thing I know, I was looking at my bank account,” the woman said. There was a deposit in the amount of $100,000. “Once it went to my bank account screen they said, ‘Oh my God, it accidentally deposited it into your account, you have to give it all back to us.’”
The victim was told her computer would not be fixed until she returned the money.
“The psychology of freezing the computer went a long way of making me go along with it,” she said.
The victim was also convinced by the presence of an additional $100,000 in her personal account.
Panicked and trying to fix the supposed problem, she went to two different branches of her bank to withdraw the money. She told the bank staff she was withdrawing such large amounts of cash to pay a contractor, as the phony Microsoft employee had instructed.
“The first person at the first bank asked me if I was under duress, and of course I didn’t think that I was,” the victim explained.
The scammer kept the pressure on by staying in constant contact with her over the phone, and warning her that such a large amount of money sitting in her account could be a tax liability. In addition to having control over her account, the crook knew her home address, and said he was sending a courier to pick up the cash.
“They knew my address, my phone number, everything, which again lent a sense of reality,” the woman said. “This was an educated person.”
Once the victim left her building with the $100,000 in a mailing envelope, she said a man spotted her and began walking toward her.
“The password was ‘I’m Andy and the color is red,’” she said. “They followed me on the phone right up until the second I handed over the money.”
After speaking with friends, they warned her that she might have been scammed.
The woman checked her accounts and made a horrifying discovery — the money had come from a trust fund she managed, not from her personal savings.
“It was the money that their dead parents left them. I could never use it for my personal use,” she said.
When she contacted her bank, they informed her that the transaction had been authorized, placing the responsibility squarely on her shoulders. The bank refused to claim any liability for the lost funds. The victim was forced to replace the $100,000 with her own money, wiping out a significant chunk of her savings.
To make matters worse, she explained that the 2017 Tax Act eliminated any possibility of even partial recovery through a tax deduction for theft. “There’s no safety net for victims of fraud like this anymore,” she said.
She also expressed frustration with the bank for not flagging such a significant withdrawal.
To her shock, the scammer called again the following day, seemingly unaware he had spoken to her the day before.
“The same person actually called me with the same story,” she said. “I couldn’t believe that someone would call the same number two days in a row.”
When she confronted him, he hung up.
The NYPD is now investigating the case as grand larceny and is asking for the public’s help in locating the suspect. The suspect was last seen wearing a black shirt, brown shorts and beige sneakers.
Anyone with information is asked to call Crime Stoppers at (800) 577-TIPS. All calls will be kept confidential.