P-Hills Residents Sent Thousands To Bitcoin, Gift Cards, To Cure Viruses, Protect Accounts

PALOS HILLS, IL — Elderly residents lost thousands of dollars in two separate phishing incidents, Palos Hills police said.

On April 30, an elderly resident was duped out of thousands of dollars by someone posing as a representative from their bank, reports said.

According to a report, the resident received a message from Fifth Third National Bank on their computer. The message said that to protect their account, they needed to withdraw $23,000 from their account.

The resident was instructed to send the money to an Athena bitcoin account. After doing so, the resident asked for a receipt. When the “representative” refused, the resident grew suspicious and contacted police.

A few days later, on May 2, another resident reported receiving a message that their computer had a virus. The message prompted them to contact Apple customer service and gave a phone number to call.

The resident called the number, who was told to send six different gift cards totaling $11,000. Once the resident realized they had been scammed, they called their bank. The resident was able to recover $7,000.