Authorities recovered $28,000 in funds criminals stole from a Tucson woman as part of a dark web phishing scam.
According to the office of Arizona Attorney General Mark Brnovich, the Attorney General's Special Investigations Section (SIS) and Financial Remedies Section (FRS) conducted the investigation.
The victim was a 72-year-old woman who gave scammers she met on Facebook $28,000 to remove her name from the dark web.
Using bank records and text message records, investigators tracked down the bank records and identified the Ghana-located account where the funds were deposited. Investigators were able to recover the funds and give them back to the victim.
"Civil forfeiture is an important strategic tool we can use to recover compensation for racketeering victims," said Brnovich, in a statement. "In these situations, we can often get victims their money back quickly and well before any criminal case can be issued and restitution can be obtained."
