Scam takes life savings of woman

A scam that took the life savings of a Neshoba County woman is under investigation.

The scammers impersonated a Mississippi law enforcement official, according to Neshoba County Sheriff Eric Clark. He said the scammer identified himself as “Jeff Taylor with the Mississippi State Police” and told the woman her PayPal account had been compromised and that she needed to move her money to a safe place. Reportedly, the man impersonating an officer had a foreign accent.

Clark said the scammer convinced the woman to put $9,700 she had in a bank account into a Bitcoin ATM in a Meridian laundromat on March 29 at about 4:35 p.m. 

He then convinced her to put the roughly $6,400 she had in cash saved at her home in a similar machine at a convenience store on Highway 493 the following day.

Clark warned that the security of people’s money is the responsibility of their financial institutions, not law enforcement.

“Law enforcement will not encourage you to move your money,” Clark said.

Clark said the next contact the woman had with the scammers was on April 1 when they told her to call the police.

“Basically they were done with her and were moving on to the next victim,” Clark said.

The woman reported to the Neshoba County Sheriff’s Office the following day. Clark said his office is currently working on tracking the money with hopes to recover as much as possible. The investigation is working in conjunction with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Secret Service.

“We are in the process of freezing some accounts and monitoring them to see if anyone tries to make a withdrawal,” Clark said. “We are hopeful we can refund some of this woman’s money but we are not sure what we will be able to recover at this time.”

Anyone with information on this or any other potential crime is encouraged to call East Mississippi Crimestoppers at (855) 485-TIPS or the NCSO at (601) 656-1414.