The Findlay Police Department is reminding people to be cautious of emails they receive and to never allow remote access to their computer.

Police say a resident was recently scammed out of thousands of dollars in a phishing scam.

The resident received an email claiming to be from McAfee, stating they would be billing the resident’s account.

A phone number to dispute the transaction was provided in the email.

When the victim contacted the number, they were told the charge would be reversed, but the provider would need remote access to the victim’s computer and bank account.

The scammer appeared to transfer too much money and directed the victim to send back the overage in store gift cards.

The card numbers were provided to scammer, which allowed them to remove the balances from those cards.

A request for gift cards is an immediate red flag and should be considered a scam, as scammers frequently use gift cards since they are mostly untraceable.

Scams such as these frequently target the elderly.