A 59-year-old Bluffton man reported to the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office that he received a call from someone named “Jonathan Smith,” who said he was a representative from Amazon.com and provided the man with an “Amazon Identification Number.”
Smith, who had called from an 843 area code, told the man he was calling about a purchase the man had made for $864.56. When the man informed Smith that he had not made any such purchases on Amazon, Smith told him he could process a refund for that amount.
The man was contacted three more times by Smith, who was now using a 206 area code.
Smith informed the man he would need to provide information from his Internet modem so that Smith could access his bank account and process the refund. Smith also instructed him to turn on his computer.
The Bluffton man was then shown a “refund” of $4,000 by Smith, who said he had made an error processing the refund.
Smith told the man he would need to return the money to him and that he should go to Target and Walmart, purchase gift cards and text the gift card numbers to Smith’s phone.
The man purchased eight gift cards and sent the numbers to Smith before realizing he had been scammed.
