West orange resident falls victim to "norton scam," loses nearly $400,000

West Orange, NJ – A West Orange resident fell victim to a sophisticated computer fraud known as the “Norton Scam” on Thursday. The scam began with an email from “Symantec Norton Associates” stating that the resident owed money to the Norton Antivirus company and needed to contact them by phone.

A person on the call claimed to be from PayPal and instructed the resident to log into a website to make the payment. Once logged in, the resident’s screen was controlled by the unknown caller. As the resident attempted to enter “$300” into a Refund Form, the caller manipulated the screen to display “$300,000.”

A HELP telephone number for the resident’s bank then appeared on the screen, leading the resident to call the number. The number, however, connected to another scammer pretending to be a bank employee who convinced the resident to wire more money or purchase gold coins to resolve the issue.

The resident ultimately lost nearly $400,000 before reporting the fraud to authorities. Detective Ryan Funk of the West Orange Police Department investigated the case, identifying a suspect named Jaynesh Patel, 33.

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