Michigan Woman Gets Scammed Out Of $21,000

A Michigan woman has been scammed out of $21,000 by a phone scammer claiming to be a U.S. Border Patrol Agent.

You here these stories all the time of elderly people being taken advantage of by phone scammers but it sounds like the scammers keep getting more sophisticated in their efforts making their claims sound more genuine.

According to FOX 17, the scammer phoned the victim October 7 from a man who said he was a U.S. Border Patrol Agent. The scammer said the woman's identity had been used to open up a bank account that was used in a variety of crimes. The woman was then told to withdraw $21,000 from her account then deposit it into a cryptocurrency ATM (which I didn't even know was a thing) located at a gas station in Troy.

Then the scammer asked the woman what was the closest police department to her home. The woman lives in Bloomfield Township and in just minutes a call came in that showed up on her caller ID stating the call was from the Bloomfield Township Police.

That definitely can make a scam seem even more real. I'm not sure how they pulled that off with the caller ID unless someone in the department was involved but that is just me speculating.

The scammer really went all out by telling the victim if she didn't follow the instructions she had received from the first call, she would then be guilty of a crime.

This is probably where she should have contacted someone else at the police station and possibly an attorney but apparently this scammers sounded pretty believable.

The victim wound up getting the 21k from her bank account and did deposit the money into the ATM.

Police continue to remind citizens that officers will never ask you to deposit money into an ATM or any form of bank account.

If you ever get a call like this, it is always a good idea to verify the agency calling you by calling a different number at the agency to find out if it is legit and if its not, well now you have the police working on the case for you.