82-Year-Old California Woman Loses $35,000 to Scammer Claiming To Be a U.S. Treasury Employee: Report

An 82-year-old California woman was conned out of $35,000 after being targeted in a bank scam.

Donna Ouchida, of Sacramento County, says she fell victim to a scam when she received a message asking her to verify a suspicious charge, reports NBC affiliate KCRA-TV.

Says Ouchida,

“I got this message that said, is this 200 and something dollars charge yours? If not, call this number.”

When she called the number, she says a man on the other end identified himself as an employee of the U.S. Treasury. She says the fraudster told her that she had become a victim of identity theft and that “credit cards had been opened in my name all over the world.”

“I got scared.”

The scammer then convinced her he was issuing a warrant for her arrest and she needed to prove she was not laundering money by sending him $50,000 in cash, according to Ouchida.

She says she withdrew $15,000 from her bank and followed the scammers directions to ship the money by hiding it in a box with toys to make it appear as a gift.

She handed off a second payment of $20,000 to person who came to pick it up.

After a third payment was asked for, Ouchida became suspicious and reached out to family members who realized she was being scammed.

“It’s really terrible. I know I should’ve known better. If you see a phone number you don’t recognize, don’t answer it.”

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office is now investigating.

Sgt. Amar Gandhi, a spokesman for the Sacramento Sheriff’s County Office, says the scam that duped Ouchida is common.

“They’ll use everything – from promises of riches to straight-out fear tactics.”

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