‘The money’s gone’: Lancaster County woman lost $25,000 in fraud scheme

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A Lancaster County woman lost $25,000 in a fraud scheme, the sheriff’s office said Monday.

The victim called what she thought was a credit union’s fraud department after receiving a pop-up on her work computer.

Chief Deputy Ben Houchin said the scammer informed the victim that Russians had tried to seize over $27,000 from her account.

The victim also got a call from someone posing as Sheriff Terry Wagner regarding an attempted theft from her bank account.

The scammer told the victim to deposit $25,000 in bitcoin into a crypto account.

She stayed on the phone with the scammer during the transaction.

“As we have learned through a lot of these, the money’s gone, and this one was a major loss for her,” Houchin said.