Porn Site May Be Tied To Western Springs Scam: Cops

WESTERN SPRINGS, IL – A pornographic website may be to blame for a Western Springs couple's loss of $30,000 in a scam, authorities said.

Police said the total loss was $30,000. Patch obtained the police report through a public records request.

About 8:30 p.m. on Valentine's Day, a woman from the 3800 block of Lawn Avenue went to the police station to inform officers that she and her husband had been scammed out of money.

She said her husband told her he received a pop-up on their computer indicating they needed to contact Microsoft support. She said he told her that he was browsing a pornographic site a couple of days earlier, which he believed may have caused a virus to download on the computer without his knowledge, police said.

The couple then contacted the phone number provided on the computer screen. That led to phone conversations that lasted for hours in which the couple followed instructions given to them, police said.

They withdrew thousands from their accounts at Community Bank of Western Springs and First National Bank & Trust.

Then they went to Mobil gas stations in Western Springs and Westmont and deposited a total of $18,000 to strangers' accounts, the report said. For $10,000 of that money, Athena Bitcoin is conducting an audit, so that money may be recovered, police were told.

During at least two visits to Home Depot in Countryside, the couple took out $11,500 in gift cards, police said. The gift card information was provided to the strangers.

Additionally, they went to Walmart in Hodgkins to buy a $500 Walmart MoneyCard and give the information to the suspects, police said.

Police said they advised the woman to monitor her finances going forward and told her to contact them if issues persist.