Imagine: you’re sitting home alone, it’s late and, suddenly, your device lights up with a phone call from a number you don’t know.

You answer, only for them to tell you they’re a representative from Apple. They tell you your computer has been hacked. If you don’t follow instructions, they claim you’ll be charged with a crime. You’re to go to the bank, withdraw $36,000 in funds and deposit them into cryptocurrency machines. Scared of what they’re saying, you listen and follow instructions — and before you know it, you’ve lost the money for good.

That story isn’t imaginative. It’s the story of a real fraud victim from Bozeman, one that Kaitlyn Wenzel, a policy analyst and public outreach coordinator with the Montana Commissioner of Securities and Insurance’s (CSI) office, shared with a cro

See Full Page