The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a scam that cost a Hillsboro-area woman thousands of dollars. The woman told investigators she was told to send about $182,000 to locations in Hong Kong, China, Las Vegas and San Jose, but it does not appear all of those funds reached those locations, police reported.
The investigation is ongoing, so the Sheriff’s Office has not yet determined exactly how much money the woman lost in the scam, spokesman Grant Bissell said on Jan. 25.
The woman reported the scam on Jan. 17. She said she was first contacted by phone on Oct. 31 by someone who claimed to be from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and told her someone was trying to steal her identity and she should transfer her money to a protected government escrow account, the report said.
She said she was told in December to send about $72,000 and then another approximately $49,000 via money wires to a location in Hong Kong. She also was instructed in January to wire $21,000 to the Hong Kong location, the report said.
The woman said the $49,000 and $21,000 did not reach the location she wired the money to, and she attempted to cancel the $21,000 payment. However, it is yet not clear if the woman was able to cancel the $21,000 transaction and if that money had been removed from her account, Bissell said.
However, it looks like the bank was unable to recover the $49,000 wire transfer, and that money had not been returned to the woman’s account, the Sheriff’s Office reported.
The woman said when the $49,000 payment did not reach the Hong Kong location, the scam artist called her and told her to send $20,000 in cash to an address in Las Vegas. She said the scammer gave her specific instructions about how to package the money and what to say to bank employees if they asked her why she was withdrawing such a large sum of money, the report said.
After sending the package of cash to Las Vegas, the woman was contacted again by the scammer and told to send another $20,000 in the same fashion to an address in San Jose. However, that package of money was intercepted by the San Francisco Police, according to the report.
The Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office does not know why the package was turned over to the police or if the money was returned to the victim.
Bissell asks anyone who has been a victim of a scam or who believes they were targeted to call the Sheriff’s Office at 636-797-5515.