A number of residents in Lincoln have reported being scammed through a social media app.
Two reports to Lincoln Police were filed within days of each other just this week. The first was reported on Tuesday after a 67 year old woman reported that she was the victim of an internet scam. The victim met a male on the app called “Hangouts.” The man told the victim she would receive a package containing one million dollars if she sent $4500 via FedEx to a woman in West Virginia.
The victim sent the money and eventually contacted the woman in West Virginia via Facebook messenger. The woman in West Virginia said she received the victim’s money and she was instructed to keep $500 and to send the rest of the money via Western Union. The Lincoln victim realized this was a scam and warned the woman in West Virginia that it was a scam, but the woman did not believe her. The Parkersburg Police Department in West Virginia was alerted to the scam.
Then on Wednesday, a 60 year old man reported that he had shared explicit photos with a woman he met on the “Hangouts” app. The woman requested he send the explicit photos of himself and she immediately threatened to share the photos if he did not pay her.
The woman told the victim she would send the photos to his family and created fake newspaper articles about him. The victim would then sent $3900 via Western Union and MoneyGram to Ghana.