GOODHUE, Minn. – It started with a pop-up purportedly rom Microsoft on a computer screen. But, you guessed it, the pop-up wasn’t really from Microsoft. Before all was over and done, the victim had forked over $63,000. Goodhue County Sheriff Marty Kelly reported the sad tale online as an alert to other possible scam victims. This, said Kelly, is what happened:
> A person in Belle Creek Township, 10 miles from Goodhue, opened the pop-up.
> She followed instructions to call a telephone number.
> Someone on the other end said she had had been the victim of a hack of $31,500 from her bank account.
> To recover loss, she was told to send twice as much in bitcoin.
> She did.
Like most 21st century scams, this one probably originated overseas. Recovery prospects are nil, Kelly said.