North Carolina’s Orange County.A woman from North Carolina is speaking up after she was defrauded of $17,500 in a convoluted plot involving a phony bank employee who not only gained remote access to her computer but also physically visited her home to pick up the money.
The Scam Began With a Locked Bank Account
The woman, who wished to remain anonymous, claimed that it all began when she was unable to access her information when attempting to enter into her bank account. She then dialed her bank’s number that was stored on her phone, but she was unwittingly linked to a scammer. The man told her that there was a questionable PayPal transaction and persuaded her that she needed to take immediate action to fix the problem.
After she gave the fraudster complete access to her computer by downloading what she believed to be banking applications, the deception got more complicated. She thought she had $18,000 placed into her account, but it was actually a simple transfer between her checking and savings accounts.
He instructed her to withdraw cash in order to return the monies, saying, “You must get cash. Go to your bank and get cash.”(ABC7)
Scammer Used Her Printer to Generate Fake Letters
After a fake Bank of America letter mentioning a significant issue with your account showed up on her printer, the woman was more persuaded. It erroneously said that the IRS had frozen her remittances and cautioned her against discussing the matter with her local branch.
She took out $17,500 from her bank while still on the phone for over four hours, and the employees questioned whether she was under duress. Unaware of the swindle, she answered no and even signed a document attesting to the voluntary nature of the withdrawal.
Man Shows Up at Her Door to Collect the Money
The woman was told to give the money to a man named Mr. Jack in another fictitious letter after she got home. Later, the moment a man showed up at her house and she gave him the money was caught on a doorbell camera.
One of her kids interrupted her later that day as she was telling them the story, saying, “Mom, you’ve been scammed.”
The suspect was eventually recognized by authorities as Linghui Zheng, who is accused of using false pretenses to obtain property. Similar fraud instances involving Zheng have also been connected to Granville, Durham, and Person counties; the estimated total loss for all victims is close to $400,000.
“It never occurred to me that there was going to be an evil person come into my life,” the woman, who has survived cancer, said, referring to the stolen money as being from an insurance policy she had saved to cover medical expenses.
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