When you speak with multiple people purporting to be from various fraud departments of your bank, it sounds like a serious matter, and that’s what an elderly woman living on Gideon Lane seems to have thought after getting that call on Tuesday, Jan. 18.
Because when she was told that she should withdraw $15,000 from her account, then drive to Stamford to get it transferred to Canada via a bitcoin machine, she did so.
The people purportedly from People’s Bank also told her not to talk to anyone about the matter and said she should withdraw another $49,000 to send after she received another call the next morning.
She didn’t send it.
She called Darien police at 8:05 p.m. the day she received the first call, and officers came to her home. They told her that what she was describing appeared to be a phone scam.