Behind the Badge
An elderly woman is out $65,000 after her online boyfriend convinced her to drain her savings and put the cash on MoneyPak Green Dot cards, Huntington Beach police said.
The woman filed a grand theft report with Huntington Beach police at about 1:30 p.m. on Oct. 28 police said.
She told officers she met a man through an online dating service and the two developed a relationship. They never met in person, she told police.
The man recently talked her into loaning him money by withdrawing thousands from her savings account and putting it on Green Dot cards, which are reloadable debit-type cards.
It wasn’t until after she sent the man the money that she realized she had been duped, police said.
This incident is one of several ways scam artists are using Green Dot cards to coerce money from their victims.
Another version of the Green Dot scam includes callers posing as law enforcement and convincing their victims they missed jury duty, and must pay a fine.
Scammers also are known to pose as Internal Revenue Service officials look ing to collect on fake owed taxes.
If anyone believes they are being targeted or are a victim of a Green Dot scam call police at 714-960-8843.
