An 81-year-old man’s bank account was reportedly drained by a telephone scammer on Tuesday in Ocala.
A Marion County sheriff’s deputy made contact with the victim via telephone in reference to the financial fraud, according to an incident report. The victim stated that on Tuesday around 6:30 p.m. he was at home using his home computer to pay bills. He then received a phone call from a man who told him that he could see the amount of money in his account, in which the victim confirmed the amount that the man stated. The victim suddenly saw his bank balance fall to zero dollars. The scammer then gave the victim instructions to follow, such as withdrawing money from the bank and emailing his information, which the victim complied and did. The victim refused to answer several calls from the scammer and went to the bank to inform an employee of the incident on Wednesday.