LOS ANGELES -- Neal checked his email one day and saw that he was being charged several hundred dollars for a software subscription he didn't want.
The 79-year-old Brentwood retiree called the phone number in the email and allowed a stranger to take remote access of his computer to "fix" the problem. Within 24 hours in late January, two wire transfers from Neal's Los Angeles bank account ended up in Hong Kong, with Neal having been duped into believing the payments were to correct accounting errors and make him whole.
Just like that, he'd lost $79,500, nearly wiping out an account he and his wife had intended as a down payment in a retirement center.
