Scammer gets thousands from Grovetown 86-year-old

GROVETOWN, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A Grovetown senior was scammed out of thousands of dollars by a phony sweepstakes – and she would have lost $12,000 more if not for an astute bank manager.

The 86-year-old victim reported last week she’d gotten a call on her home phone from someone identifying themselves as Billy Baker from “American Awards.”

He told her she’d won a sweepstakes prize of millions of dollars, but she’d need to buy some gift cards to collect the money.

She bought $1,500 in Visa gift cards at the Walmart in Grovetown. The scammer called her back and she gave him the numbers to the gift cards, and he told her to destroy the cards, which she did.

He then transferred the call to someone identifying themselves as FBI Agent Anderson.

The fake FBI agent told the victim he was going to change her home phone number because terrorists were after her. He then told her to destroy her cellphone, which she did. She said it appeared he did manage to change her home number, though she was puzzled how he could accomplish that.

She was transferred back to the fake sweepstakes caller. He said she needed to go to her bank and withdraw $12,000 to pay the taxes on the winnings.

When the victim arrived at her bank in Grovetown, the manager told the victim she was probably being scammed, and she reported it to deputies at the urging of a family member.

The Grovetown woman was among the latest victims of scammers who are using gift cards to get money from their prey – something that’s been happening quite a bit in Columbia County, according to deputies’ reports.

The scammers use gift cards, cash apps or bitcoin because once the money is gone, it’s gone and hard to trace.

Another victim last week in Columbia County fell for a gift card scam, with a caller telling her she’d missed jury duty and needed to pay up or be arrested. This is a common scam that’s currently making the rounds.

This latest victim was a 27-year-old woman in Appling, who reported the case to deputies on April 12.

A caller told her she’d she missed jury duty and that a warrant was issued for her arrest, with the caller giving her a law enforcement officer’s name and badge number.

The caller told her she could clear the warrant by buying $700 in gift cards at Walgreens and giving him the activation codes.

The victim did what she was asked and only realized later that she’d been scammed.

Authorities say they will never call and demand payments like this, so don’t be fooled, even if the caller gives a real officer’s name and the caller ID makes the call seem authentic.

Common threads in scams involve coming into a large amount of money but being required to pay something to get it – like what happened to the Grovetown senior – and a sense of urgency or fear – like what happened to the Appling victim.

That sense of fear is an element of sextortion, another online crime making an appearance lately.

One victim was a 26-year-old man from Evans.

He told deputies on April 12 that he had begun following a woman on Instagram, and she eventually messaged him and they began having conversations, including in SnapChat.

He said their conversations turned sexual and he sent her three nude photos of himself at her request. He said he believed she was a real person because she would send him pictures of herself, as well.

Then she created a group message on Instagram adding his father and friends and she told him she would send the pictures to the group chat if he did not send money.

The victim sent $800 through Venmo, plus $1,200 through Zelle.

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