Fraud Reported In Nutley: PlayStation 5, Computer Hacker

NUTLEY, NJ — Several cases of fraud were recently reported in Nutley, including an incident involving a PlayStation 5 and a scammer who tried to hold a resident’s computer for ransom, police said.

According to the Nutley Police Department, the following incidents were reported in the township last week.

Dec. 7 – “The victim stated to officers that they attempted to purchase a PlayStation 5 on Facebook Marketplace from a user named ‘Saboor.’ The victim transferred $500 via Zelle to Saboor who then sent a message to the victim, ‘Are you trying to scam me?’ and stopped answering the victim. Saboor removed their profile page, which was blank, and there was no other identifying information to locate them. The victim did not give any personal information during the transaction and reported the incident to their financial institution, but they advised that they do not refund transactions made between private parties. The victim does not believe their identity was compromised.”

Dec. 8 – “A report was taken from the victim who stated they were contacted by a personal loan company who stated that someone applied for a $5,000 loan in the victim’s name. Personal identifiers were used to try and obtain the loan.”

Dec. 11 - The victim stated they received a call from a ‘Robert Brown,’ who claimed to be a representative from Amazon who stated the victim’s account was hacked for $1,950. ‘Mr. Brown’ advised that Western Union would refund the money to the victim’s account if they provided the pin number to their checking account. The victim then provided Mr. Brown the pin number. The victim went to their financial institution and was advised that there was a withdrawal from Western Union in the amount of $522.50 out of their checking account from San Francisco, California. At that point, the victim realized they were scammed. When they returned home, they found a message on their computer from Mr. Brown, which indicated that if the victim did not send Mr. Brown a $500 Target gift card, he would shut down the victim’s computer. The victim told Mr. Brown that he would not be sending any gift cards and now the victim’s computer is not functioning and was most likely hacked by Mr. Brown. The victim has been issued a new banking account along with new pin. Attempts to contact Mr. Brown were negative for a response.”

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