By Ron Rolla
Special to Senior Times

I was downloading a voice-to-text program on my computer on Wednesday, Jan. 31, when suddenly my screen froze and I was given a phone number to call at Microsoft.

I called the number and was told that my bank account had been broken into and all of my accounts were frozen. I was connected with someone who claimed to be from my bank, and they sent directions to my phone and asked me to stay on the line.

I was told to go to the bank and withdraw $15,000 in cash and then stop at a gas station and deposit the money into a crypto bank so I would have funds to pay my bills, as my account would be frozen for three months. I was not to tell anyone about this because that would alert the account hacker that we were on to him.

I went to the bank and asked to withdraw $15,000 in cash. I was asked what I needed the money for, and I said I was taking a trip to Norway. The bank gave me $15,000 in $100 bills, and I went back to the car and told the person on the phone that I had the money.

They told me to drive to a specific gas station in Kennewick. When I got to that gas station, the name was different than what they told me, and I became suspicious.

I protested, and the voice on the phone told me that they would give me another gas station to go to, in a different part of Kennewick. I drove to that station, got out of the car and went in to ask the person there where the machine was that I could use to convert my $15,000 into Bitcoin. I started to use machine, selecting that I wanted to change $15,000 into Bitcoin. The machine asked me to input a code that would be sent to my phone.

I didn’t understand how I could use the phone and retrieve that number at the same time.

At that point, a person at the gas station tapped me on the shoulder and asked me if I was having difficulty. I said, “yes.”

They told me it was a scam.

I immediately hung up the phone and purchased a bottle of water from that gas station as a gesture of thanks to them for alerting me to the scam.   

I then went to the bank and relayed my story and deposited the $15,000 back into my account. I had to open a new checking and savings account and switch the payment information on everything from Amazon to my television provider. I also had to go through the process of notifying Social Security of my new account information.

I went to Best Buy to make sure my computer wasn’t infected with any viruses. When I told employees that the virus may have gotten in when I attempted to download a program to help me with speech to text, we discovered that I already had a program like that on my computer. We initiated the program, and that is what I’m using to write this story. It is wonderful to be able to talk to my Chromebook and have the words appear in my document, which is entitled, “Scam.”

Thank God that people who didn’t know me saved me from a horrible experience.

Ron Rolla, 87, has lived in Kennewick for 12 years.