Manatee County Woman Scammed Out of More Than $27,000 After Fake Child Pornography Safety Alert

BRADENTON, FL – The Manatee County Sheriff’s Office is warning the public about an alarming tech support scam that cost an 88-year-old woman thousands of dollars, starting with a computer security alert about child pornography.

On Wednesday, officers were notified of a scam involving an elderly woman in Manatee County. It began with a message on the victim’s computer that appeared to come from Apple support and reported a security threat to her Mac.

“She’s told she purchased child pornography, and she knows she didn’t,” said MCSO spokesman Randy Warren.

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Investigators said she called the number listed in the message, which was sent to scammers rather than tech support. They told the victim that federal authorities were investigating her and that her financial information was at risk.

“Then she gets dragged into a scandal, and it’s going to be published, and you’re going to be humiliated. There could even be criminal charges,” Warren said of the scam.

MPs said the scammers played on the fear and urgency created behind the message, pushing victims to pay the scammers.

“Days go by, she’s moving money around, opening bank accounts, depositing money and making transfers back and forth,” Warren said.

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Investigators said the victim walked out of a gated community on Lockwood Ridge Road to meet the scammers twice with envelopes of cash, causing him to lose more than $27,000.

“The scam was successful. As long as they’re successful, the bad guys will continue. This was no small feat for them,” said Brian Jack, chief information security officer at KnowBe4, a Clearwater-based cybersecurity firm. “All of these things are very disturbing and scary for someone who thinks this is real.”

Jack said older people are more vulnerable to scams, but anyone can fall victim to an online scam.

“When you’re browsing a website, you could be accessing 15, 20, 30 different sites in the background. If just one of those sites gets compromised or infected with malware, you’re going to start seeing pop-ups on your computer,” Jack said. “Make sure you have good antivirus software, that your patches are up to date, and that your security updates are in place. If your browser has that little icon at the top of the page that says you need to restart your browser or update it, do it.”

Since the victim met the scammers in person, deputies said it would help their investigation.

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“We’re also looking for information locally and we’re following up on some leads right now. We want to know who the people are that showed up at the entrance to his gated community,” Warren said.

Experts also suggest talking with family members if anything seems unusual and not giving your information to strangers or allowing them to remotely access your devices.

If you are the victim of such an attack, call law enforcement, change your passwords, and notify your bank or credit card company.

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