Police are investigating a scam in where a Rocky Grove resident reports they received an email that appeared to be ligitimately sent from PayPal advising that there had been unauthorized deductions from the account and to dispute the deductions to contact them.
The individual then called the provided number to dispute the deductions.
When “PayPal” called back the number that was displayed did show an ID from “PayPal”
The scammer attempted to get the individual to purchase a better firewall for their computer and when that didn’t work the scammer took remote access of the individuals computer.
The scammer claimed they had accidentally deposited too much money into their account and asked for the individual to get gift cards from Walmart to send them the outstanding balance. The individual stalled and advised “PayPal” they did not have a vehicle at the time but would get the cards the following day.
The individual then contacted their bank and shut down all accounts closing the scammer out of the account.
Police continue to warn residents to by hyper vigilant when it comes to anything delaing with their finances.
As a result of this scam the individual is not out any money but the scammer took complete control of their home phone, cell phone and computer.