Joseph Mark

Victim Location 65401

Total money lost $800

Type of a scam Government Grant

My friend, Leslie *** PM me through facebook and told me she had received a grant and had given my name to Joseph *** and he would contact me if I was eligible for a grant. The next day 9/7/19, I received a PM from Joseph *** telling me I may be eligible. I sent them my name etc. and then today, they said to go buy $300 of itune cards so I could receive a check for $150,000; I did that then they wanted me to go buy $500 more which I did. While this was happening, Leslie was PM me encouraging me that she did the same thing and that she couldn’t wait till I had the money so I could tell her "Thank you." Once I bought the $800 worth of cards and sent them pictures of the cards and receipts, they then asked for $1500 worth of cards for "delivery" that is when I placed a phone call to Leslie, only to find out that she in fact had not been talking to me through PM that she had been hacked last week.

I tried to report this to the BBB but they said they could not do anything about it. Now as a single mom on a fixed income, I am out $800 with no way to get this money back. Is there anyway to retrieve my money and to stop these people from hurting others?