FORT MILL – A Fort Mill senior citizen was swindled out of thousands of dollars in a scam, according to Fort Mill police.
Earlier this week, a 71-year-old man came to the Fort Mill Police Department to file a complaint after he realized he had been scammed, an incident report states.
The man told police that he had “work done to his personal computer by a man named Jack with an Indian accent,” the report states. The victim said the work was done remotely and he was contacted by “Jack,” whom he never met, and who identified himself as a contractor for Microsoft.
According to the report, the supposed contractor told the victim he worked for an Illinois firm and that the work was covered by a warranty handled by a third party vendor.
The victim was told that vendor owed him $800 for the cost of the repair and that “Jack” intended to deposit that amount into the victim’s BB&T account, but mistakenly put $8,000 into the victim’s bank account instead. The victim said the scammer asked him to reimburse the difference in pre-paid gift cards.
In response, the victim said he sent “Jack” a total of $11,000 in Apple, Walmart and CVS cards, among others.
Gift card scams have been on the rise for several years with scammers misrepresenting themselves as law enforcement, the IRS, utilities and private companies. For more, click here and here.
Michael Harrison is editor of The Milltown News, a partner with FortMillSun.com in reporting on crime in the Fort Mill area.