JUPITER, Fla. — Just days before the holiday weekend, a Palm Beach County woman almost had her Christmas ruined.
Judith Flynn said two men tried to rip her off by convincing her to withdrawal thousands of dollars from her bank account.
Something in her gut told her not to, a move that she said saved her. Now she hopes her story will help others.
It was certainly a close call for Flynn. She said that had she went along with it, it would've wiped out her bank account.
Early Monday morning, Flynn said she got a call from a number she didn't recognize. On the other line was a man claiming to be from Amazon, according to Flynn.
"He says, 'I'm just letting you know you have a package that’s going to be delivered to you tomorrow,' which would’ve been this morning," Flynn said. "'They’re going to take it out of your account, the bank, for $1,500.'"
Flynn said the caller then transferred her to another man who identified himself as an official with the Federal Trade Commission and even provided her with a badge number.
"Then he connected me to Bank of America, which I thought was Bank of America, and it was the department that takes care of the frauds. That’s what he told me," Flynn said.
The 78-year-old was later told her identity had been compromised and in order to clear it up, she would need to either hire a lawyer or pay them directly, or
she could be arrested.
"He says, 'you can’t tell somebody. Then you could be arrested, too, because you’re going to be part of the fraud,'" Flynn said.
While on the phone, the two men then convinced her to make two withdrawals from her account, one for $7,500 and the other for $7,000, and mail the cash in a box.
"When I got out of the bank, the second bank, he said, 'now you’re going to have to buy stuff. You got to send us the money,'" Flynn said.
Flynn said that's when she realized it was all a scam and hung up the phone. She hopes her story will help keep others from falling victim to the same scheme.
"Be careful of your phone calls or emails or texts, of anything that sounds suspicious. And if you know, if you have an ordered anything or you know bought it over the phone, or does it matter where you got it?" Flynn said.
WPTV reached out to local law enforcement and they said that now that we're in the holiday season, scams like this are on the rise. Officials said if you receive a call that you feel is suspicious, it's best to hang up immediately and report it.
