NC senior hands over $17,500 in cash to fake bank worker who showed up at her door — and she captured the man on camera. Here’s her warning to others

"Every morning I wake up and I'm like, I just want this nightmare to go away," she told reporters in Raleigh.

She’s not alone. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that Americans are scammed out of $2.95 billion by imposter fraud every year — the second largest form of financial fraud after only investment scams.

Because imposter scams pose serious and ever-changing threats, maintaining fraud detection best practices and tracking new techniques is critical to staying safe.

A harrowing ordeal

The victim’s harrowing ordeal began when she was unable to access her online banking portal. She called what she thought was her bank's number saved in her contacts: "I put in my password and username and got to the website, but it wouldn't let me open my accounts."

A “representative” answered and claimed her accounts were frozen due to a suspicious PayPal transaction. After being transfered to a "PayPal fraud" representarive – a call she ended because the audio quality was poor — she called another number, in Florida, which she found online herself.

However, during the second call, she was informed that she needed to pay an $82 fee (supposedly refundable) and follow specific instructions, including downloading software onto her computer.

But the software wasn’t what it seemed. "I typed $82 and I immediately looked up to the screen and it says $18,000, and then it goes, accept, accept, accept — just like that.

"That's not what I typed in; that's a mistake,” she said.

Access to bank account granted

She says the scammer now had access to the woman’s computer and then used that information to transfer $18,000 from her savings into her checking account. Then, she says, he printed a letter with Bank of America’s logo on it — from her printer. The letter stated that the IRS had blocked the transfer.

Throughout it all, the scammer told the woman not to stop and think.

“He kept saying, ‘don't hang up on me,’” she said. The victim’s caller ID shows the call lasted more than four hours.

The victim says the scammer then told her, "What you have to do to fix it is you have to get cash, go to your bank and get cash."

The victim followed the scammer’s directions and went to her local Bank of America branch to withdraw $17,500 — the extra $500 “for her troubles.”

There, the manager asked her if she was withdrawing the money under duress. She denied this, even signing a document attesting that the withdrawal was of her own free will.

"I'm like, no, I'm not being pressured, I didn't know I was being scammed," she told reporters.

When she returned home, the victim found another letter in her printer tray — this time thanking her for returning the money and alerting her that a “Mr. Jack” would be picking up the money shortly.

Soon enough, her doorbell rang, and Mr. Jack appeared.

Suspect is apprehended

After giving $17,500 cash to the scammer at her door, the woman called her daughters, who immediately identified it as a scam.

Distressed, she went to the police. And although investigators say the victim likely won't recover her money, her Ring doorbell provided crucial evidence in a much larger operation.

It led to the capture of Linghui Zheng, a Chinese national and illegal immigrant who collected the cash himself, a critical mistake that led to his arrest.