Man Loses $8,200 in Gift Card Scam, Police Say

An Upper Bucks County man was duped into giving $8,200 in gift cards to online scammers, Pennsylvania State Police at Dublin announced Wednesday.

According to a news release from the barrack, the victim of the theft by deception is a 61-year-old man from Nockamixon Township.

Police said the man fell for the scam after a computer virus instructed him to “contact Microsoft.”

When the man followed through, he was told that someone had hacked into his bank account and withdrawn $10,000 from it, the news release said. He was then “advised to send Walmart gift cards to an individual” in order to have the money credited back to his account.

“The victim purchased $8,200 worth of gift cards and sent them as directed,” police said.

“He was contacted again the following day and advised to send more money,” they continued, noting that it was “at that time (that) the victim realized that it was a scam.”

Police said the man’s bank account was never hacked and the only money he lost was in the form of the gift cards he was conned into sending.