NYPD officer helps Queens woman get thousands back after alleged wire transfer scam

A Queens woman lost thousands of dollars after falling victim to an alleged wire transfer scam over the phone. But an NYPD officer found a text on her phone that helped her get all of the money back.

The woman received a call telling her she was already the victim of fraud. The caller said she would have to quickly transfer $5,000 to a Western Union account to fix it.

She later realized her mistake and thought the money was gone for good. 

The text that stood out 

Police officer Minh Hoang looked into the case. He found a text on her phone, buried in a barrage of messages from the scammers, that was different from the others.  

It was Western Union saying they held the transfer due to possible fraud, which the woman initially thought was part of the ruse.

"I immediately took her in my car and drove her to the nearest check-cashing place, and we were able to verify that the money was still in her account, and they reimbursed her money back," Hoang said.   

He said the woman was "elated." 

"She was so happy, and that day that I went out to see her, that was actually her birthday. She turned 74 years old that day, so she was so happy to get that back," Hoang said. 

"You can't usually get it back"

The Federal Trade Commission, police and banks across the country say it's rare to recover money after such an incident.

"You can't usually get it back," commission officials said. 

Hoang said this type of issue are on the rise.

"These scams were--every day, there's hundreds of calls and platforms that they can call anyone," he said. 

Perpetrators are increasingly using AI to mimic voices and make their tricks even more believable.

If you do fall for one, experts say time is of the essence when trying to recover your wire transfer, but the best protection is prevention.

Claire Rosenzweig from the Better Business Bureau said you shouldn't panic if you're tricked. 

"What you should do is directly call the financial institution at their official website or their number. You never respond to the email or text, whatever it is," she said. 

Now Hoang and the NYPD are trying to figure out who the suspects are, so they can't ruin any other birthdays.