80-year-old Florida woman loses $150,000 to government impersonation scam involving phantom hacker and fake courier

Summary

An 80-year-old woman in Florida lost nearly $150,000 after scammers impersonating government employees convinced her to transfer money and gold. The scam involved a "phantom hacker" scheme where the woman was told she was under investigation and needed to move her money to a safer place. Scammers instructed her to withdraw $20,000 in cash from Wells Fargo and later had her purchase gold bars. The incident occurred earlier this year and included the use of a fake government courier to collect the money. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of older adults losing $100,000 or more to such scams increased fourfold, according to the FTC.