A Salmon Arm senior was scammed out of $9,000 after a link on Facebook led them to being threatened for accessing child pornography.

On Tuesday, Dec. 3, RCMP received a report from a 69-year-old who said they'd fallen victim to fraud, having clicked on a link while on the social media website that opened an "alarm" pop up, said Salmon Arm RCMP Const. Andrew Hodges in a media release. The pop up informed the victim they'd been hacked and would be reported for accessing child pornography if they didn't call a phone number on their screen. 

The victim called the number and was conned into purchasing $9,000 in Apple iTunes gift cards, and provide their numbers to the scammers. 

Hodges noted that prior to buying the gift cards, the victim was warned of such scams by the retail clerk but proceeded with the purchase. 

The victim was referred to victim services and advised to consider attending a fraud presentation, and having their computer professionally reformatted. Hodges added the scammers used a California phone number, and police had no way to trace the gift cards. 

To learn more about red flags to watch for in the most common types of scams, including identify theft, Hodges advised visiting websites for the following: , , or the .