This week, I want to let you know about a scam a local man initially fell for. He nearly lost $2,400, but, thankfully, was able to keep all his money.

The man told me he got a call from someone claiming to be a case officer for McAfee, a computer security software company. Really, this was just a scammer pretending to work for a legitimate company. The man told me he’s had a McAfee subscription for years. He said the caller claimed his firewall and file protection software needed to be updated.

The man said the caller knew the renewal date for his actual subscription, so the man believed the caller. He gave that scammer remote access to his computer.

A little while later, the scammer called back and said there had been a problem installing the update, and as part of the Terms of Agreement, that requires McAfee to compensate the man $350. That’s a red flag.

The man told me he checked his bank account and saw that $3,500 had been transferred, instead of $350. To refund what looked like an overpayment, the caller asked the man to buy Best Buy gift cards. That’s another red flag. The man said he bought $2,400 worth of gift cards from Amazon.

A short time after that, the man told me he got a call from someone claiming to work for Amazon. That caller asked the man to confirm he was buying the large amount of gift cards. At the time, the man told me he thought this was a legitimate call, but after investigating, the man said he realized the number on his Caller ID for “Amazon” was the same number the scammer who asked him to buy gift cards called from.

After an uneasy night, the man told me he checked his bank account the next morning and did not see the $3,500 deposit. When he called his bank, the employees had no record of that money ever being in his account.

Luckily, the man was able to cancel the Amazon order and get his money back. The man told me he also called McAfee’s technical support line, and they confirmed this was a scam.

I reached out to McAfee, as well. The company told me employees will never call customers out of the blue. If you ever get an unsolicited call from a company, you should hang up, find a verified number online and call the company back yourself to confirm they were trying to reach you.

Additionally, I want to let you know the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office is warning about another scam. The sheriff’s office says callers are telling people they missed jury duty and threatening they’ll need to pay $1,800 in fines.

EPSO says no one from the sheriff’s office will ever call or text to say you have an active warrant or missed court or jury duty.

The Sheriff’s Office recommends people hang up if anyone you don’t know calls to ask for money. If you get a call like this, report it to EPSO at 719-390-5555.