February 22, 2024
A local Levy County citizen has been scammed out of significant amount of their life’s savings during an elaborate scam that mimic’s the plot of the new movie “The Bee Keeper.” Our citizen received an email from “NORTON Antivirus”, a program they use on their personal computer to protect their electronic data. The email notified the citizen that the software needed to be updated and the update fee was $499.99, which was already in process. The email had a phone number that our citizen called.
A Middle Eastern descent male answered the call and began assisting. Shortly thereafter the citizen’s computer was taken over by an unknown entity. Our citizen’s entire financial wealth was now visible to these unknown bad actors that conveniently made an error in the “refund” they were going to make. The “refund” error went from $499.99 to $49,999.99. These scammers ultimately stole $49,999.99 from our citizen and transferred this amount to an overseas account.
This is a scam that is not associated with the well-known company Norton Antivirus. Citizens are cautioned to verify all emails, text or phone calls by contacting all companies they conduct business with in-person or by physically finding contact information via Google searches or known phone numbers. This is a very sad situation for our local citizen and recovery of their stolen money will be extremely difficult if not impossible. This type of scam is widely published and may be located via a Google search. Please beware and be safe with your wealth.