A Troy man recently got scammed out of $30,000 from fraudsters claiming to be from Microsoft, collecting money owed from a billing error, police said.
The case is among several scams reported in recent days to the Troy Police Department.
According to Troy police, the man said he was contacted by the suspects who told him he needed to repay money he owed due to an error, and was instructed to withdraw $30,000 from his bank accounts. Two suspects came to his home to collect $10,000 each, then the man met a third suspect in a parking lot to hand over the remaining $30,000, police said.
“It is extremely unfortunate that people are falling victim to such scams,” said Troy Police Lt. Ben Hancock. “Troy, along with many other agencies, are seeing an increase in this particular scam where individuals come to your house to pick up a pretty significant amount of cash. Please do not provide any personal information or commit to paying these scammers.”
Another scammer reportedly got nearly $1,100 from a Troy resident recently, in a bogus internet/phone promotion, police said.
The victim was told if he could get a monthly rate for Xfinity service if he prepaid his bill for a year using Target gift cards — so he purchased four gift cards for $270 each and then gave the card numbers and access codes to a second person falsely claiming to be from the Xfinity billing department, police said. The victim subsequently checked his Xfinity account and realized he’d been scammed, police said.
A third Troy resident recently was targeted in a scam from someone claiming to be from Publishers Clearing House, telling him he’d won $60,000 and a new truck, police said. He was directed to WhatsApp where he got a request for his bank account number, social security number and a photograph of his driver’s license — which he provided, police said.
The man later learned from his bank that it was likely a scam, police said. The man then contacted Publishers Clearing House directly and was told he didn’t win anything, police said.
Hancock said the man hasn’t reported any losses yet, but it’s possible they could be coming since identification information was provided. In such cases, it’s recommended the victims contact their banks and set up monitoring through credit bureaus as a precaution “to keep an eye on your finances,” he said.
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