PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — An 85-year-old retired cop has a warning for other seniors after losing almost $10,000 in a PayPal scam.
"'I'm an idiot,' I said to myself," Frank Tumminia told Contact 5. "Made me feel so stupid."
Tumminia called Contact 5 after falling for a scam that involved PayPal.
"I open my email, and I see on there PayPal. I owe $479, and if they don't hear from me in two days, they will charge my checking account," Tumminia said. "I was scared, called the number. He starts walking me through all these things, 'Oh, we'll correct this,' and all these things, and then he says, 'Oh God, I made a mistake.' I said, 'What happened?' He said, 'I put $10,000 into your checking account, and I need to get that money back or I'll lose my job.'"
Tumminia said he was worried for the man on the phone, and he wanted to help.
"So, I go to the bank, get cash, put it in a box, wrap it, gave me the address and go to UPS," he said.
Tumminia ended up losing $9,500. He told Contact 5 he realized it was likely a scam right after he sent the money.
Back in December, Contact 5 met Acelise Alexis who lost $40,000 to a similar scam. She never sent anyone money, but the scammers hacked her Zelle account.
"They had access to multiple of my Zelle recipients," Alexis said. "I don't know where they (got) them."
The Federal Trade Commission reminds consumers never to send money to anyone they don't know. If you get a cash request from a name you do recognize, call them on a number you know to be right before sending anything.
Also, the FTC recommends reading your bank statements closely and regularly.
As for Tumminia, he reported his case to Port St. Lucie police, and they gave him a list of fraud protection tips to follow from now on.
"It's not just elderly people they're scamming. They're scamming young people too," Tumminia said. "I felt very small. I can't believe that this happened to me."
