HOUSTON — A Houston woman battling cancer says she was scammed out of thousands of dollars and now Houston police are investigating the case. It all started with a pop-up on her computer.
“It has been a really crazy 7-month period for us, learning about her diagnosis,” said the victim’s son Enrico Sanchez.
From cancer patient to victim, Sanchez told us the story of how his mom, Lou, was taken advantage of.
“By the time my mom realized what was going on, she felt like it was too late to back out for her own safety,” he said.
The way it happened caught her by surprise, Sanchez said.
“All of a sudden a pop-up screen appears on her computer, saying her accounts have been hacked, you need to call this number to recover your accounts,” he said.
She called the number, and someone claiming to work for Apple was on the other end of the line. Then, she was transferred to someone pretending to be with Bank of America to “fix the problem.” The person on the phone convinced her that withdrawing the money and letting a “federal agent” pick it up was the only way to keep her money safe. It all ended with his mom going to a branch to withdraw a large sum of money.
“My mom describes it as like she had a gun to her head the whole time, where she was just following their instructions,” Sanchez said.
He said the scammers kept his mom on the phone for four hours.
They told her to take a picture of the money and the "federal agent" would come pick it up. Sure enough, a neighbor’s surveillance video caught the car. Sanchez turned the video over to Houston police, hoping to catch the man who took his mom’s money.
“Money that she kept telling them was going to be used for her medical expenses, as she is fighting cancer,” he said.
She’s battling multiple myeloma and since she lost her money, friends and family have stepped up to help cover the costs of her treatment.
“Starting the GoFundMe for her, seeing the response from that has kind of restored my faith in people,” Sanchez said.
This family hopes that sharing the story will save someone else from losing their savings.
“Obviously, nobody would want this to happen to their parents, but she is the one who has been like, ‘I want people to know what happened to me, so they don’t pray on them too,’” Sanchez said.
A spokesman for the Houston Police Department tells KHOU 11 the case has been assigned to the Financial Crimes Unit. Sanchez said he and his mom also filed a report with the Federal Trade Commission.
What should you do if you get pop-up messages on your screens?
- First, don’t call the number. Real security warnings will never ask you to call a phone number.
- Second, close the pop-up and if it doesn’t go away, restart your computer.
- Finally, the FTC recommends running an anti-virus scan to be safe.