LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – Thousands of dollars were stolen after a North Las Vegas woman was targeted by scammers who ultimately showed up on her doorstep.
It happened about two weeks ago. The North Las Vegas resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, said it started with a call with her bank’s caller ID.
“I was at home, and I got a call letting me know that there was suspicious activity in my account,” she said.
Sure enough, when she looked at her online banking account, she found two fraudulent charges totaling thousands of dollars. That’s when she said the scammer told her that they needed to “secure her account” immediately.
“He went on to explain to me that, due to the high amount of fraud that’s been going on, that they would have to send a courier to pick up my card,” she said.
Within less than 10 minutes, that so-called “courier” showed up at her front door, with an “access code.”
“Unbelievably, I opened the door and gave him my card,” she said.
After she handed the card over, video shows the scammer pulling out a pair of scissors, chopping the card in half, and then putting it in an envelope.
“They had my information. I didn’t give them my address, they confirmed my address with me,” she said.
This whole time, she was still on the phone with the original caller. However, just a couple of minutes after she handed her card over, she got fully locked out of her online bank account.
“That’s when I realized, I said, ‘I’m in trouble here, something is not right with this,’ and I just quietly hung up,” she said.
She jumped into action and called her real bank, closing her accounts and changing her passwords.
Nearly $9,000 later, she’s hoping her story serves as a warning before these scammers strike again.
“It’s embarrassing to come forward and say that you fell for something like this, that you opened your door and handed something so valuable to a complete stranger,” she said. “The bottom line is, if somebody calls you, just hang up.”
She said a representative from her bank told her the scammers had already hacked into her account from the moment they first called, and getting the card’s chip took the scam one step further.
She’s hopeful her bank will pay back the $9,000 that was stolen but she hasn’t seen the money yet.
FOX5 reached out to North Las Vegas Police to get a copy of the report she said she filed with them.
Last week Henderson Police arrested a suspect for a similar crime. FOX5 reached out to see if that same suspect is involved in the case out of North Las Vegas. Both NLVPD and HPD said due to open investigations, they can’t provide any additional information at this time.
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