An elderly Arizona widow feels “devastated” after a phone scammer robbed her of her entire life savings of $25,000 last month.
Susan Guthrie, 76, was tricked into depositing money into her account by a scammer posing as a Microsoft employee. SWNS report.
They convinced her that her computer had been hacked and that if she didn’t transfer the money, she risked having it stolen.
“I felt like I could trust the scammers, and I felt secure that they would solve the problem,” said Guthrie, who lives in Mesa. “When I found out, I was devastated. I felt really stupid.”
Saralyn Guthrie says scammers gained access to her mother’s computer on February 5th after she clicked on a pop-up offering a fake Microsoft number.
Over the phone, the scammers instructed Guthrie to transfer his savings for safekeeping until they could foil the hackers.
Guthrie told The Arizona Republic. Last week, she said the scammers gave her Microsoft ID information and were kind to her.
“What really pisses me off is that she was saying to these scammers, ‘I’m just a poor little old lady who’s all alone, why would someone steal from me?’ And they felt sorry for her. ” complained freelance videographer Sarah-Lynn. .
Guthrie was told to withdraw the money and deposit it using a Bitcoin ATM at a nearby warehouse.
“That $25,000 was all she had left to get her out of a little problem,” Sarah-Lynn said. “My parents lost everything in an accident in 2008, and now she’s stuck in a small apartment that she can barely afford with Social Security.”
The scammers initially warned Guthrie that hackers could gain access to the phones of those he called and assured him not to seek advice from relatives or friends.
However, she eventually told her physical therapist what happened during an appointment the next day.
The therapist warned Sarah-Lynn, who then went to find her mother and confront her.
When Saralyn told Guthrie she was talking to criminals, not Microsoft, her mother hardly believed her.
“They are [the scammers] It’s like a hypnotist,” Sarah-Lynn explained. “100% it felt like I was talking to someone in a cult.”
Saralyn said her mother was still on the phone with the scammers when she arrived and was “still totally hooked.”
“I kept trying to mute the phone and she kept pulling it away,” Sarah-Lynn said. “She had already given them her own savings, and she just couldn’t get it in her head.”
Eventually they went to the bank to talk to the branch manager and reality finally set in.
“What finally convinced her was when the bank manager told her the money was missing,” Sara-Lynn said. “When she heard that from someone in authority, it was like something switched in her head.”
The two filed reports with federal police and Mesa police, but were told that because the funds were transferred in Bitcoin, authorities could not trace the criminals and the funds.
However, Sarah Lynn Set up a GoFundMe They were quickly able to raise over $27,700 for her mother.
“It’s incredible how quickly people came together. Without that, my mother would have been lost and I would have had to take care of her,” she said with a smile.
Guthrie is not alone. Last month, a grieving British widow admitted she was swindled out of $63,000 of her life savings by a “romance scammer” who preyed on her through her Facebook page.
And a New York Magazine financial advice columnist recently confessed that he was scammed out of $50,000 by a scammer claiming to be a CIA agent.
