HIGHLANDS RANCH, Colo. — A Highlands Ranch pastor is sharing a warning after he almost lost tens of thousands of dollars to a scammer.
92-year-old Pastor Ray Lane and his wife, Joyce, are residents at Wind Crest retirement community in Highlands Ranch. One day in September, they received a pop-up alert supposedly from Microsoft.
Richard Butler
“Joyce was at her computer, and she pushed a button, and it says, ‘There’s a problem that you may want to take care of,'” said Ray.
Trying to address the issue, Ray dialed the number displayed. The individual who answered the call proceeded to inform the elderly couple that their credit card had been used for the purchase of child pornography in China.
The person told Ray they would have to go to their bank and put their money into a new account to protect their funds.
“We were to take that money and then start a new account with a bank, and that way we would save our money,” Ray said.
Richard Butler
Faced with this alarming news, the scammer instructed Ray to fabricate a story to acquire a substantial sum of money. In response, Pastor Ray and Joyce quickly visited their bank and concocted a tale for the teller, stating they needed a large down payment as they were on the verge of buying a car.
“When it came to where I was going to be involved in a lie, I knew that there was something wrong,” the pastor said.
The bank teller and manager questioned Ray for a while before releasing the money. Once he had the cash, the scammer told Ray to start a new account at an ATM and deposit the cash into that new account. That was when Ray decided he had heard enough.
The pastor cut communication with the scammer and immediately went to the police.
The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is warning the public about holiday scams as we move through the holiday season.
“Demanding personal information like Social Security numbers, bank account information, passwords, chances are that’s a bad guy looking to do some bad things to your good name with that information,” said IRS spokesperson Raphael Tulino.
The IRS has these tips that can help protect you this holiday season and throughout the year:
- Shop at online sites with web addresses that begin with the letters “https:” the “s” stands for secure communications. Also look for a padlock icon in the browser window.
- Don’t shop on unsecured public Wi-Fi in places like a mall or restaurant.
- Ensure security software is updated on computers, tablets and mobile phones.
- Watch out and help protect the devices of family members who may not be technologically savvy, a wide range that goes from young children to older adults.
- Make sure anti-virus software for computers has a feature to stop malware, and that there is a firewall enabled to prevent intrusions.
- Use strong, unique passwords for online accounts.
- Use multi-factor authentication whenever possible.
Pastor Ray and Joyce want others to learn from their cautionary tale.
“It’s embarrassing, very embarrassing, to have this happen to you. But we’re telling people that can happen to you,” Ray said.
