ANDERSON COUNTY, S.C. (WSPA) – Financial fraud can hit anyone, but all too often seniors are targets.
In South Carolina alone, consumer analysts with Comparitech found 3,700 cases of elder fraud in 2019, with a loss of $67 million. And that is why SC lawmakers have recently given financial institutions the power to protect vulnerable adults from exploitation.
Polly Fehler, in Anderson County, is the type of woman to pay off her credit cards every month, and even make extra payments on her mortgage.
“I thought I was pretty smart to not spend any money and not being foolish and not falling for anything and I didn’t just fall, I went down to hell with this,” said Fehler.
It all started back in April of 2021 when the Seneca senior was on public Wi-Fi and got an alarming pop-up on her computer.
“I saw a triangle that was orange with an explanation beside it that said computer compromised, with a phone number below,” she said.
Fehler now understands the hackers, claiming to be with Microsoft, gained remote access to her computer under the guise of fixing the issue for a few hundred dollars. Over the next two months, they were watching her every move including online banking.
Then in June, they went in the for the kill.
Fehler said the bogus company had called to say they couldn’t fix her problem after all and offered a refund.
“All of these things on the screen kept flipping through. All of a sudden, my checking account…
