WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A Porters Neck woman says she almost lost nearly $10,000 on July 27 to a scammer before a Wilmington police officer stopped her at a bitcoin kiosk outside a gas station.
Mary Ann Nunley said the scam began with a text message.
“I got a message on my phone… it said that my account with the Geek Squad was ending,” Nunley said.
The message said $390 would be taken out of her account.
“So I call the number, I said cancel this, I don’t want it, and I want my money back,” Nunley said.
The call led to hours of back-and-forth with a man who promised to return her money but was attempting to steal more, according to Nunley.
The scammer told her she needed to take nearly $10,000 to a nearby bitcoin kiosk to fix the situation.
Nunley drove to a gas station with a bitcoin machine, which was broken.
“Sure enough, there was a money machine there, except it was broken,” Nunley said.
A Wilmington police officer approached Nunley at the machine.
“And this nice police man came up to me and said, ’ Don’t put your money in that machine; you’re being scammed,” Nunley said.
The officer, identified as Nicholas Morrison, helped Nunley end the call with the scammer and confirmed she had not lost any money. He took her to Best Buy to confirm the Geek Squad was not involved in taking her money, then drove her to the bank to redeposit her cash.
Police said people should never use crypto ATM machines if they are being threatened or asked to do so by someone they do not know.
“And then he was so kind, he was so nice to me,” Nunley said.
On Aug. 20, nearly a month later, Nunley and Officer Morrison were reunited.
“The first thing I wanna do is hug your neck! And anytime you wanna be my grandson, you come on and be my grandson, because I love you!” Nunley said.
Morrison received an invitation to Nunley’s 90th birthday party this fall.
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