Illinois Victim Scammed For $30,000 By Phony Geek Squad

Here we go again.

Imposter scams have been experiencing some highly successful score in Illinois over the last couple of months, and the latest one involving a victim in Western Springs should prove to you that criminals have no intention of stopping a scam that's working this well.

How well? Here are just a few examples of imposter scams that have claimed victims recently here in Illinois (click the hyperlinks to learn more about each case):

• An Evanston, Illinois man scammed out of $62,000 by a con artist posing as actor Kevin Costner.
• A retired Illinois nun was taken for over $400,000 by a phony Publishers Clearing House Sweepstakes prize.
• A Palos Park woman had over $50,000 in checks stolen in a check-washing scam.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), an Imposter Scam can be defined this way:

An imposter scam is when a scammer lies and pretends to be someone they’re not to trick you into giving them money, access to your financial accounts, or your personal information. Scammers often pretend to be from a business you know or from a government agency — or both. They try to gain your trust and get you to believe they are who they claim to be.

In The Evanston Scam Case, It Wasn't Really Kevin Costner, The Retired Nun Who Was Scammed Out Of $400K Wasn't Dealing With The Real Publishers Clearing House, And The Victim In Western Springs Thought They Were Working With The Real Geek Squad--But They Weren't

All of them were dealing with imposters who weren't there to help, they were there to steal money and personal information.

According to a report at Patch.com, this all started about a year ago when the victim took a computer to Best Buy's Geek Squad for a tune-up to make it run faster. When they finished, he got it back and everything was fine.

Then, about a month ago, he got a text that claimed to be from the Geek Squad, asking him to renew his annual protection agreement for $500. He agreed, and was given a QR code to scan at a local ATM.

Patch.com:

Upon doing that, the resident said $20,000 was deposited into his bank account from a bank account that he believed was Geek Squad's, police said.

The man was then instructed to deposit $19,500 from his account to a bitcoin ATM at 55th Street and Wolf Road. He followed through.

Then he did so five more times, at $2,000 each.

When all was said and done, the victim had been taken for nearly $30,000. This sort of thing is happening in Illinois and all over the nation: