Austin woman loses thousands, FBI says elder fraud schemes on the rise

AUSTIN (KXAN) — An Austin woman said she was schemed out of thousands of dollars. It happened earlier this week after someone called her and said she had a warrant out for her arrest.

The woman, who asked us to hide her identity, said the man identified himself as someone with the sheriff's department.

The FBI said last year alone, Texans over the age of 60 collectively lost more than $278 billion in elder fraud schemes.

'I felt ashamed'

The woman said the man on the phone told her she had a warrant out for her arrest because she allegedly didn't go to jury duty.

She said he told her he needed to be on the phone with her until she got the money to pay.

The woman said she wasn't thinking clearly at the time, because her husband has been in the hospital for weeks. So, she followed the man's instructions and went to H-E-B to convert the money to Bitcoin.

"He wanted me to take the receipt and put it in a mailer and drop it at the post office," she said.

Within about 45 minutes, she was out of thousands of dollars. But it didn't stop there. The man on the other line wanted more money.

"He says, 'Well, now there's a problem.' He says, 'There are two warrants out for your arrest,' " she said.

Luckily, when the woman went to another bank, a manager told her this seems to be fraud and told the woman to block the number.

Investment and tech schemes

Just from January to May of this year, the FBI had about 1.6 billion reported elder fraud schemes. FBI Supervisory Special Agent Adam Pohl said its happening right here in the Greater-Austin area.

Pohl said there are two schemes he sees the most:

When it comes to investment fraud, Pohl said the schemer will have a person buy some sort of cryptocurrency.

"They'll even have websites, accounts that you can log into, and you can see what you believe to be your account, and you can see your returns," Pohl said. "You think this is great, until you try to withdraw your money, right?"

Pohl said the schemers will tell people they have to pay fees to withdraw their money.

"They give them more money. Well, unfortunately, that money's gone almost immediately," Pohl said. "Then all of a sudden, you can't get hold of anybody."

In these situations, Pohl said it is difficult to identify the people involved or recover any funds.

"It can be devastating to some of these folks," Pohl said.

When it comes to tech support schemes, Pohl said that happens when a person gets a pop up on their computer that says its infected with a virus.

"Leading you to either click a link or have a telephone number," Pohl said. "You eventually get into contact with an actual person. That person will again employ this sense of urgency to try to kind of invoke that emotion and make you feel, feel like you need to do something now."

The FBI said sometimes a schemer will tell a person their identity has been stolen. Schemers might say that because a computer is infected, the person must make sure their assets are safe and take them out of the bank.

"They'll have these folks buy gold bullion, gold bars, gold coins, you know, other precious metals," Pohl said. "They'll do bulk cash, crypto."

Ultimately, Pohl said schemers will create a sense of urgency. He recommends taking a minute to think twice.

"Pause, take a breath, you know, step back, verify," you know," Pohl said. "Try to verify independently what you're dealing with, right? Ask a family member, ask a neighbor."