Three scams involving popups have been reported in the past couple of days in Cumberland County.

All three involve elderly citizens.

A 77-year-old woman contacted the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office yesterday (March 19, 2024) to report a scam. She logged onto her computer. A popup came across her screen stating she needed to contact Microsoft because her bank information was leaked. She clicked on the popup. It got her in contact with a “Sahara Hayat” who claimed to work for Microsoft. Hayat got the victim to speak with Shawn Morris, who allegedly worked for the FBI. Morris told the victim in three hours, $35,000 was going to be taken from her bank account. Morris instructed her to go to her bank, take out $35,000, and deposit it into a bitcoin machine at a business in Crossville. The victim was able to withdraw $30,000 and later deposited it into the machine. It only took $27,750 when the machine messed up and did not give her a receipt. Morris told the victim not to say anything to anyone about the transaction as he thought someone working at the bank leaked her information, and it has happened to several others. This claim from Morris was false. Law enforcement told the victim she would probably never see her money back.

The second recent scam case involved a 69 and 76-year-old couple in Fairfield Glade. This couple also received a popup on their computer stating it was hacked. The victims said the popup was from the Windows Defender Security Center, instructing them to call (833) 734-1231. They called, and a man identified as Ronald Lewis told them their computer was hacked. They were swindled out of $20,000. By the time they sent the money to the imposter, they realized it was a scam.

The third case was reported yesterday when a female in her 70s reported she received a popup on her computer. It stated the computer received a virus and to call 888-682-4850 immediately. She did and spoke to a man identifying himself as Eric Cooper, allegedly with Microsoft. She was told to purchase gift cards and give the numbers off the back to the scammer to solve the problem. The victim lost nearly $2,000 from the purchase of four gift cards in the incident.