One scammer was partially thwarted while another succeeded in cases recently reported in Troy, according to police.
In the partly-failed attempt, the resident still lost $10,000 but avoided being cheated out of $100,000 that the scammer was seeking, police said.
That scam began when a Troy man received notification that his computer had a virus and was provided a phone number to call to have it fixed. The call led to the man giving his credit card information to pay for the repair, police said. The next day, the man was contacted and told the repair was $100 less than quoted but the repair company had accidentally refunded $100,000 instead of $100 and the overpayment had to be returned.
The man followed instructions to make the transaction via Bitcoin and completed a $10,000 transaction. When he was told to continue the process with more money, a credit union teller recognized it as a scam and intervened, police said.
In the other recent case, a Troy woman told police she was scammed out of $1,300 by purchasing gift cards as instructed, after receiving a check for $1,795 for a purported grocery store survey that turned out to be bogus.
Law enforcement has repeatedly cautioned the public about sending payments to people they don’t know. Scams often request money through Bitcoin and gift cards, including the promise of cash reimbursement,