May 23, 2022

Scammer bilks Saline County man out of $60,500

Posted May 23, 2022 7:43 PM

By LESLIE EIKLEBERRY
Salina Post

A scammer used a Saline County man's money against him, and now the local man is out $60,500.

Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan said this morning that a 69-year-old Saline County man reported that on Friday he received an email allegedly from Geek Squad telling him that they were renewing his membership. In the email was the amount of the renewal fee and a phone number to call.

The man called the number to cancel his alleged membership and talked to someone who told him that he needed access to the man's computer to cancel the alleged membership. The Saline County man gave the scammer access to his computer and some coding appeared on the screen.

The man was then told to type "$260" into the box that appeared on the screen. When he did, the amount changed to $26,000. The scammer told the man that something was done incorrectly and that $26,000 had accidently been deposited in the man's checking account. The Saline County man looked into his checking account and it showed that $26,000 was, indeed, there.

The scammer told the man that he needed to return the money by purchasing $26,000 in gift cards and supplying the scammer with the card codes. The man complied.

This ruse continued two additional times: once in the amount of $25,000 and another time in the amount of $9,500, Soldan said.

Each of the three times, the man purchased gift cards in increments of $500 for a total loss of $60,500, Soldan said.

As it turned out, the scammer had gained access to the man's bank accounts and was transferring money from a savings type of account to the man's checking account to make it look like $26,000, $25,000, and $9,500 had been accidently transfered to it, Soldan said.