How Barnegat Man Nearly Lost $95K in Online Phone Scam

Barnegat Police posted on Facebook on Tuesday about how they helped a man retrieve money he lost in a scam on Thursday, Oct. 30th.

Here's a breakdown of what happened so this scam doesn't happen to you.

Scam Began With an Online Pop-up Message

According to Barnegat Police, the man was using his home computer on Thursday, Oct. 30th, when a pop-up message appeared claiming that his device was infected with malware and telling him to call a telephone number.

The Barnegat man called the number and gave the man who answered the call access to his computer.

The scammer then convinced the man that money had been mistakenly deposited into his bank account.

The scammer instructed the Barnegat man to purchase a cashier’s check and send it through UPS to an address in Queens.

Hopefully, you realize that you should never let anyone you don't know have access to your computer over the phone, or in any other manner.

Police remind you that you should also never send large sums of money to anyone you don’t know or fully trust.

The Barnegat Man Realizes He Was Scammed

The Barnegat man finally realized that he had been scammed four days later, on Sunday, November 2nd.

At that point, he reached out to Barnegat Police and told them he believed he had been scammed out of $95,000.

Barnegat Police contacted a US Postal inspector and a UPS area manager to help them find that check.

Within a few hours on Sunday evening, they located the check at a UPS facility in Queens. It was recovered and returned to the Barnegat man, preventing a major financial loss to the man.

If something feels suspicious or you think you’re being scammed, talk to a family member or call your local police department before you do anything foolish.