Another scam, another Massachusetts resident swindled out of thousands of dollars

An 89-year-old Massachusetts woman was scammed out of thousands of dollars last week.

According to a social media post by Hingham Police, on Friday, “the woman and her family came to the police station to report the scam. The resident said earlier in the week she received an email from a sender that claimed to be from her bank that was notifying her of unusual activity on her bank account. The email asked her to call a phone number which was the fraud department.

“The woman called the number listed on the email and they told her account had been compromised and she needed to withdraw her money. They told her to go to two nearby bank branches (Quincy and Scituate) and withdraw $34,000.

“They also told her to stay on the phone while she was at each bank and leave her phone in her pocket so they could listen while she spoke with the tellers. They told her to not take “no” for an answer if the tellers decline to give her the cash. She was only able to withdraw $9,000 and $10,000 cash from the two bank branches.

“The woman continued to receive calls from the fraud department who told her they will come to her home to pick up the cash to prevent it from being “hacked” until they could deposit it into a new secure account. Later, the same person from the fraud department said a person was at her home and she could give that man the money.

“This scam happened over several days on numerous phone calls from the same caller who appeared to gain the trust of the woman. The caller remained on the phone with her as much as possible especially during her two withdrawals, to prevent her from calling someone to verify if she was being scammed.

“Remember, if you receive an unwanted email or text, delete without opening it. If you suspect it may be from a real bank or financial institution, you should call or email the number/address on your statement or card (not in the email/text) to be certain you are only contacting the actual business. If you have any information, please contact Det. Heather Hermida at 781-741-1443.”