An Oceano woman is trying to recover nearly $25,000 after she says she was scammed by people claiming to be PayPal employees.
Deborah Santos-Kosinski, 69, thinks that being a senior citizen made her an easy target and she’s coming forward with her story to prevent others from falling victim to the same scam.
Santos-Kosinski says she feels helpless after losing more than $24,000 in a PayPal scam.
She says she logged into her bank account and saw a charge for $899, which she didn’t recognize.
“I called the number that was listed a gentleman and gentleman whose that term loosely a man answered and said, this is so-and-so from PayPal and how may I help you?”
That was the beginning of her soon-to-be nightmare.
“He said, I have a form for you to fill in and it’s a live form, so be very careful when you fill it in and make sure everything’s correct and then submitted.”
So she did – an easy enough way to correct the error. But minutes later, it would get much more complicated.
“Then he said, no, you made a mistake. You put $89,000. You put the decimal point in the wrong place. That amount has been deposited into your account.”
She went from trying to get back $899 – to allegedly being credited $89,000. The man on the phone showed her the new deposit in a fake online bank statement.
“He said, I have to transfer you to our banker because this is serious and you could be charged with stealing from PayPal.”
Santos-Kosinski spoke with multiple people claiming to want to help fix…
