FRIGHTENING: Young Lakewood Woman Loses Nearly All Her Money To Scam

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A young Lakewood woman has lost nearly every penny she had after falling prey to a scam today.

At approximately 1:30 PM this afternoon, a Lakewood businessman walked into a convenience store at the intersection of Route 9 and Chestnut Street, when he saw this young woman crying bitterly. When he asked her what’s wrong, she had just lost almost all her money.

The approximately 20-year-old woman, an American-Israeli, moved to Lakewood approximately four months ago. Today, she received a call on her cell from a man who threatened her with arrest by the U.S. Marshal’s Office is she doesn’t withdraw all her money from her account and send it to them – or it could become frozen and she would lose it.

The woman was then told a taxi was ordered to her home, and she would be taken to her bank to withdraw her money.

Unable to hang up and call her husband, the terrified woman got into the taxi and headed to her bank. She withdrew every penny she had – over $9,000.

The scammer then directed to her to the convenience store at the intersection of Chestnut Street and River Avenue, where they instructed her to insert the cash into the Coinflip machine, which sends the money to the caller via Bitcoin-type funds.

After inserting $8,100 into the machine, the woman realized something was not right – but by then it was too late. Her money was gone. That’s when she broke down crying.

“This was the worst time for this to happen,” a relative of the victim said. “She has no job, and now she’s basically penniless.” (Family members managed to put together $1,000, and deposited it to her account.)

Lakewood Police arrived, and the officers attempted to comfort the victim while investigating the incident.

Let’s help her get back onto her feet.

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14 COMMENTS

  1. My heart goes out to this individual. At the same time ALL are reminded never to act while in a state of hysteria Take a deep breath, calm down and think rationally.

    Additionally, NEVER open the door if you don’t know who is at it. Even the police (at least in NJ as per a recent supreme court ruling) cannot enter without a warrant. Be polite and respectful however firm in disallowing entry without a warrant.

  2. I get such calls, literally, several times a day. From the “IRS,” from the “Social Security Administration,” and from “my” bank (although the bank is never named). Most, or all, are a computer generated voice (a poor one at that) asking me to either call this central office or to hold on to speak to a representative. Usually they threaten arrest. Today’s was a new one. They said they noticed that my SS card or number had been stolen and that all my benefits would be suspended if I don’t speak to someone immediately.

    Hang up and report the number to your state’s consumer fraud division or some other law enforcement agency.

  3. I too feel very bad for you and may Hashem soon be “M’Malay Chesronach”!

    The same type of thing happened to me TWO TIMES with people who “fix” your computer. When they called, THEY SOUNDED SO “REAL,” just like the agents at AOL and AT&T, with the same accents and the same typewriter-like sounds in the background. From their name, it seemed that they were — LITERALLY — THE “Operations Room” of the Internet! They exclaimed that my computer was putting out “error messages,” which they “showed” me on my screen, and then took two hours to “fix” my computer.

    After that, I did an Internet search for their name and saw that, tragically, this is a terribly horrid very wide-spread scam. Again, to sound like they are the “world-wide” “control-center” of the Internet — the callers will give fake names like “Microsoft Tech Support,” “Windows Service Center,” etc.; they will ask for huge $$$ to do the “repairs,” and people have thus lost THOUSANDS of dollars and cannot get their money back.

    With myself, they had wanted me to pay $300; I told them I only had $120, which they agreed to but charged my credit card $150. I immediately called my credit card company; I had to make several calls to them and fill out a long form and send it back to them. Then, Boruch Hashem, they finally removed the charge from my account.

    Needless to say, with any further such calls, I immediately hung up. Therefore, I THOUGHT that I had well learned my lesson.

    • When they tell me they are from Microsoft I tell them I am turning on my computer but have to wait until the little “apple” cog stops turning.

  4. I never saw one of these things, but it sounds like the money was deposited into a machine? That means the physical paper money is still sitting there? So whoever owns that machine that sends “virtual” currency in exchange for “paper” has no responsibility here to track the money? Sounds like a HUGE loophole for money laundering.

  5. I feel very bad that this women lost all her savings. But B”H she was not hurt or worse! Getting into a car with a stranger is dangerous! It just as easily could have been a deranged sick person and this could have ended much more tragically.

  6. (Above, I mentioned that I was hit two times by such a scam and related the first incident; BE’H, now I will relate the second one.)

    As (after that first hit) I would quickly hang up the phone whenever called by any of these “computer” guys, I THOUGHT that I was now doing OK. However, I was ill prepared for OTHER tricks of these wicked fiends.

    One afternoon, my computer screen was suddenly totally covered and blocked by a page — with the Microsoft logo — of an “emergency” “alarm” stating that my computer was being hacked and that I must immediately call a certain number. Calling that number, the “agent” who answered (obviously it was that he PRETENDED that he) knew nothing about my problem and asked what was the error message number, etc.

    (Through all of this, I thought: “This cannot be another scam; it looks way, way, way too ‘official’!!”)

    The guy laid out a few “repair” plans, and they were after much bigger $$$. He would not take my VISA credit card (this made me more suspicious) but did take my MasterCard debit card; I instructed him to wait four days (to give me time to put money on the card) to which he agreed. He then “transferred” me to the “department” for the “repairs,” and the “Microsoft Technician” got to “work.”

    By now though, I wanted to call Microsoft, but, with the “technician” now controlling my cursor arrow, I could not go to the Microsoft website to find their phone number! So I tried dialing “1-800-MICROSOFT,” and, Boruch Hashem, a true Microsoft agent answered. Of course, she confirmed my fears that this absolutely WAS a full scale scam; yes, these wicked con-artists are able to hack into a person’s computer and pop-up these screen blocking fake alarms. She told me how to block out the “technician” who was on there now, so, B’H, that was stopped right in the middle.

    After the Microsoft call, I immediately called my bank, so they immediately shut down my debit card, so, Boruch Hashem, I did not give any money to these scam guys. However, I had to pay Microsoft $100 to now – truly – fix my computer; the (true) technician was on for almost a good hour, removing the scores and scores of spyware & other harmful pieces the scam people had inserted. However, the computer still did not work right, and soon, it completely crashed. Evidently, the fiends are able to inject an impossible-to-detect-virus that totally destroys the machine.

    Later on, TWO TIMES full-screen alarms popped up — and these were even more official looking, like they were right out of the Microsoft website — but, B’H, being now fully prepared, I simply shut off the computer.

  7. During this period, I called my local police department about the problem. An officer actually came over to my house; he was very nice as he explained that, unfortunately, there is NOTHING that law enforcement can do about these scam guys. They are calling from outside of the country, and their phone numbers that appear on the caller-ID’s are falsely created numbers that cannot be traced. So the only defense left is to just hang up.

    My lawyer gave me a number of tips to be able to determine that a presentation is bogus:

    1.) If YOU are not the one who initiated the contact (phone call, email, text message, etc.) — IT IS A SCAM!!

    2.) If it is trying to scare you into being hysterical with fright (e.g.: “You’re computer is blowing up!” “You are going to be arrested!”) — IT IS A SCAM!!

    3.) If it demands any of your personal information — IT IS A SCAM!!

    May Hashem send Moshiach very soon and then there will be true effective Mishpat!

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