GRAHAM, N.C. (WTVD) — It was supposed to be a fresh start for Karla Timpani. She had just closed on her new home in Graham and things were looking up.
Then the Alamance County resident became the victim of a scammer and lost $23,000. Now, she is living in a financial nightmare.
“I think I’m never going to be the same. I’ll just have to go through life not trusting anybody anymore,” said Timpani after being scammed out of $23,000.
“I was so excited about moving into this house and (it) even took my joy from that,” Timpani said.
It started when she got an email that claimed to be from iTunes that stated she signed up for a membership and was charged $126.
“It said if you didn’t sign up for this email to call them so I did,” she said.
When she called who she thought was iTunes to dispute the $126 charge, “he said, OK, we’ll give you a refund. Go to your computer screen, check on this, check on that. Go to anydesk.com and that gives them control of your computer.”
Timpani gave the man who called himself Sam remote access to her computer and followed his instructions.
“He said to put in the amount of the refund which is $126. So I started putting in 126; well, the numbers took off and I said, ‘I just put in 126’ and it went $12,600 and Sam started yelling, you put in too much money. I’m gonna lose my job. I have small children at home, you have to pay this back and I said, how am I supposed to do that? I mean, I really thought I did make a mistake,” she added.
Since Sam had control of…
