Police warn of scam that originated on Facebook

Police in the City of Tonawanda are warning neighbors after a woman was scammed out of almost $1,000.  Police say she responded to a message from a hacked Facebook account.

Police tell 7 Eyewitness News the 66-year-old woman was conned out of $900, after she was told she was the winner of a $150,000 Government Green Grant Fund.  The woman told police she got a message from a Facebook friend telling her about the grant program, and telling her to text a number with the area code "475".

The woman texted the number, and got a message back that she won the grant, and had to buy nine $100 iTunes gift cards, and text photos of the cards to the number.  After the woman did that, she was told to go buy $2,200 in gift cards to "pay the tax" on the grant.

When the woman went to Walmart to buy the cards, someone told her it was likely a scam.  She reported the incident to the police, who found that the woman's friend's Facebook had been hacked, and that the message was a scam.  The phone number had been taken down.