Online scam costs Graves County victim $8600

The Graves County Sheriff's Office is warning of a recent online scam that cost one elderly victim $8600. 

While attempting to Christmas shop online, the victim got a pop-up message warning of child porn and child porn software on their computer. They then got a message with a number for a Microsoft Security Specialist.

The victim called the number and spoke to a person who gave a name and an ID number of a Microsoft employee, and suggested they online search the name to verify. 

The victim was persuaded to download software so that the alleged specialist could remotely access the victim's computer. Once the computer was accessed, the victim was told that a representative from her bank was going to call to secure her accounts. The victim gave all of her bank account information to the person on the phone. 

The victim was further convinced that to fix the problem and take care of the legal issues and cover the breach of her financial information, gift cards must be purchased at Paducah area Kroger and Lowe's stores. The victim purchased those cards totaling more than $8000.

The card numbers and access codes were given to the scammers, and they electronically took the money. 

The scam was detected by an alert clerk at a Lowe's, who contacted the store manager while the victim was making the large gift card purchases. 

Deputies said that anyone asking for remote access to your computer, or for you to purchase gift cards of any kind, should be a red flag.