An 80-year-old Cass Twp. A man was scammed out of $17,000 after someone hacked his computer and forced him to buy gift cards, according to Frackville State Police.
Police said that on November 10, an unknown actor forced the victim to withdraw $17,000 from his bank. The victim was forced “under false pretenses” to buy gift cards totaling that amount, police said.
According to police, the investigation will continue pending further information.
On November 7, state police issued a press release alerting people to a Bitcoin scam, in which an unknown caller directs someone to withdraw large amounts of money from their bank account. The victim is then told to put the money in a Bitcoin kiosk for ‘safekeeping’, and the money is transferred to the caller.
Due to the nature of the crime, many of these scam cases remain unsolved, police said.
