Daniel Prince
She bought gift cards and sent them to the scammer
A Union woman is out $2000 after a Paypal text scam. The 73-year-old woman told Pfc Cody Nations that she had received a text message on Friday that there was some fraud activity on her Paypal account. She stated she uses Paypal, so she believed the message. She called the phone number provided in the message and spoke with someone. That person told her to get $1000 in gift cards and send it to them so they could start the process to return the money to her Paypal account. She said the subject told her once the cards went through, her money would be placed back into her Paypal account. She stated she bought two $500 gift cards from Walmart and sent them to the representative. She checked her Paypal account shortly afterward, and she found a pending return transaction for $5000. She said when she checked the account the next day, the pending transaction had been taken off and no money had been placed in her account. She said the representative advised her she would need to send more gift cards in order to get the money. She went to CVS to get $1000 in gift cards for Target, but there was an issue with the cards and there was no money on them when she left the store, so she went back to Walmart to get two more $500 gift cards, which she then sent to the representative. The following day, she contacted law enforcement about what was going on. They informed her it was a scam and not to have any further contact with the representative. She told them that someone had also taken $484.12 out of her Wells Fargo bank account using Apply Cash. Pfc Nations told her to contact the bank about the fraudulent charges. The case has been sent to investigations.