By SUE SUCHYTA
Sunday Times Newspapers
TRENTON — A woman reported Feb. 2 that an email claiming that there was a problem with her Amazon Prime payment account resulted in her being scammed out of $54,000, which she unwittingly transferred to the fraudster’s account.
The receiving the email, the woman searched for an Amazon customer service account, which connected her to a con artist, who claimed her credit card had been compromised and was connected to money laundering, drug trafficking and terrorism.
The victim was then transferred to a fake Federal Trade Commission agent, who kept her on the phone for four hours and convinced her to transfer $54,000 from her credit union to a Well Fargo Bank account. She said she did so out of fear that all of her assets would otherwise be seized.