Elderly Rochester Woman Scammed by Facebook ‘Friend’

Rochester, MN (KROC AM News) - An elderly Rochester woman was scammed out of a sizeable amount of money last week and her bank is credited with preventing her from losing even more.

Police Capt. Casey Moilanen says his department became aware of the scam on Tuesday.

The 80-year-old woman told an investigator she recently became friends with an unknown person on Facebook. She says the “friend” told her about receiving a $200,000 IMF grant. The “friend” told the woman she could also get the same grant - if she sent $4,000 to a certain address. The woman sent the money in cash to an unknown address last Friday. She was later told to send $5500 to the same address.

The woman went to her bank but employees who became suspicious declined to give her the money and contacted police.

Moilanen suspects the money was sent to an overseas address.