A 77-year-old Bloomington woman was scammed out of $20,000 cash and $4,000 worth of Best Buy gift cards, according to police.
Bloomington Police Department Capt. Ryan Pedigo said the woman was targeted by several phone call scams.
Pedigo said the woman told police she was contacted Jan. 20 by people claiming they worked for Amazon. They told her she had fraudulent purchases on her account.
The woman told police she was instructed to buy $4,000 worth of Best Buy gift cards and send the gift card numbers and amounts to the scammers over the phone to verify her identity and get the fraudulent purchases off her account.
Pedigo said some of the money was deposited back into the woman's account. She received another call the day after the first one, stating that to get the rest of the money back, she should send $10,000 cash stuffed into the pages of a thick book to an address in New Jersey, which she did.
The next day, the woman received another call requesting an additional $10,000 stuffed into another book’s pages. She sent the money to the same address.
The woman contacted police Wednesday after the $24,000 was not refunded to her bank account.
The woman gave police the name of the man she believes she was talking to, Pedigo said. The case is under investigation.
