Hingham, MA – Bank employees prevented an 83 year old resident from being scammed out of $8,000 that she had withdrawn to send to scammers.   

On February 12, 2021, an Officer was dispatched to the Hingham Institution for Savings branch located in the Linden Ponds senior living complex for a report a customer had withdrawn a large amount of money and may be in the process of being scammed.   

The 83 year old resident of Linden Ponds had just withdrawn $8,000. During conversations with the woman, the bank staff became suspicious the woman was possibly being scammed. They contacted Linden Ponds security who called police. 

An Officer met the woman at the bank. The woman said she needed the money to pay Amazon. She explained to the Officer she had received an email from someone claiming to be from Amazon. The email informed her there was an $899 charge on her Amazon account for an iPhone. The resident called the “Customer Service” phone number that was listed in the email to dispute the charge. During that two hour phone call she was eventually transferred to the “Fraud Department”. The “Fraud Department” told her not to tell anyone about their conversation and just head directly to the bank and withdraw the money. 

The Officer confirmed that it was a familiar scam and explained to her how the scammers operate. The email and phone number were not legitimate and were from scammers. 

The woman then understood she was being scammed and deposited the money back in her account. 

We applaud the bank staff for their alertness and taking the extra steps to prevent the elderly resident from becoming a victim of a scam in which she would most likely not been able to recover her money. ### Conatct P.I.O. Sgt. Steven Dearth