PALM HARBOR, Fla. — Palm Harbor resident Kristin Hoeschele thought she'd hit rock bottom when her husband of 31 years died last November.
The 70-year-old widow was drowning in grief when she received an email in March regarding the renewal of Richard Hoeschele’s anti-virus program.
“I wasn't holding up well at all,” she said.
Hoeschele told ABC Action News it was the first time she didn’t verify the sender before responding, something she said she "never" does.
The stranger offered to refund the $350 renewal fee but first needed Hoeschele to confirm her debit card number. Next, he emailed a fake screenshot of her bank account showing a credit of $35,000 instead of $350.
Hoeschele had no idea she was dealing with a thief. She gave him her account number to correct the refund amount. The fraudster quickly emptied $70,000 dollars from her checking account.
“I was horrified,” Hoeschele said.
The FBI’s elder fraud report shows seniors lost more than $587 million to tech support scams, making it the third costliest ripoff for older consumers behind cryptocurrency and investment schemes.
FBI Special Agent Keith Givens said victims are more willing to hand over an account number when it appears they are not being asked to hand over money.
“Oh, well, they're not asking me to send money. They just want the account number," Givens said, describing the victims' reasoning. "So they think that that's something that's okay to do.”
The FBI report shows Florida ranked second in the nation in elder fraud, with more than 8,400 seniors reporting they'd been ripped off.
In Hoeschele’s case, the thief wiped out the money from her husband’s life insurance. Now she's living from one social security check to the next.
“I'm a strong person. I've been through hell before. It was just another one to go through,” she lamented.
Never jump into any transaction without taking the time to go to an independent or trusted source to verify the information you've been given. The FBI encourages victims to report any Internet-related fraud to their bank and the Internet Crime Complaint Center as soon as possible.
