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Proudly serving the residents and visitors of Beaufort County, South Carolina

For emergencies, call 9-1-1

Caller impersonating DirecTV offers deal, takes $450

A 68-year-old Sun City Hilton Head woman filed a report with the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office advising that she was contacted over the phone by someone who said they were with DirecTV.

The person on the phone offered the woman a discount on adding HBO to her plan. The woman accepted the offer and gave the person on the phone the PIN to her account.

Soon after, HBO did start working on her TV, so the woman had no reason to believe she was being scammed.

The woman was again contacted by the person purporting to be with DirecTV and told that if she made a one-time payment of $450, the next year of satellite service would only cost her $40 a month.

The person on the phone told her she needed to go to the local convenience store and purchase $450 in eBay gift cards and read them the numbers over the phone.

The next day she received yet another call from this person, who informed her that their system had crashed and that she would need to send another $450.

At this point, the Sun City woman realized she had been scammed. She went online and found the number to DirecTV.

A customer service representative at DirecTV confirmed that it had, in fact, been a scam.