A woman on TikTok is warning people after she was the victim of a $1,000 scam. In a three-minute video, Beth Royce said she received a phone call that appeared to be from her younger sister.
Instead of hearing her sister on the other end of the line, Royce said she heard a man screaming at her.
“I got this girl, and I’m going to kill her if you don’t send me money,” the man told her.
The man then said that he would shoot Royce’s sister in the head if she contacted the police.
“He sounded completely unhinged. He sounded crazy. I heard muffled sobs in the background that sounded like a woman’s voice, so of course, I was like, ‘Oh my God, that’s my sister,'” Roye said. “I fully 100 percent believed that this was real, especially since it was her contact that popped up on my phone. It wasn’t some random number.”
Roye stayed on the phone with the scammer for over 15 minutes and eventually agreed to send him $500 on Venmo and another $500 using Zelle to keep her sister safe.
The terrifying ordeal came to an end when Royce’s mother called her sister, and she answered the phone.
Royce posted the video to warn others to avoid similar scams. She gave some advice for people who think they may be on the receiving end of a hoax call.
“I’m not kidding. If you get a call like this, I read that it’s recommended that you hang up and then immediately call back because it will call your actual contact,” she said.