Darien Resident Loses $25,000 In Online Scam: Police

DARIEN, CT — A Darien resident recently fell victim to an online scam and lost $25,000, according to police.

On Feb. 26, a resident on Pilgrim Road reported being targeted by online scammers who posed as Apple security and Bank of America representatives, Darien police said in their weekly crime summary update Tuesday.

The resident was presented with a fraudulent computer notification that showed unauthorized access to their system and financial accounts, Darien Police Sgt. Vigil Mauricio said.

"The suspect(s) convinced him to withdraw $25,000 in cash and hand it over to an unidentified individual at his home on Pilgrim Road," police added.

Mauricio said no arrests have been made and the detective division has started an investigation.

The incident resembles a "tech support scam."

"The scammers may pretend to be from a well-known tech company... They use lots of technical terms to convince you that the problems with your computer are real," the Federal Trade Commission says on its website. "They may ask you to open some files or run a scan on your computer — and then tell you those files or the scan results show a problem…but there isn’t one."

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The FTC warns people to ignore pop-up messages that have instructions to call tech support.

"Some pop-up messages about computer issues are legitimate, but do not call a number or click on a link that appears in a pop-up message warning you of a computer problem," the FTC says.

Additionally, a tech support call that's unexpected is a scam, even if the number is local or looks real, according to the FTC.

For more information on tech support scams, click here.