Retired US nurse loses over $200,000 to scam, then gets $80,000 tax bill and has to sell home

FBI receives nearly 3,000 internet crime complaints a day on average A retired nurse, Susan Bivins, was tricked into sending more than $200,000 to a scammer who pretended to be a federal agent. Bivins said she reported the fraud to the FBI and local police, but did not receive the help she had hoped for. The financial damage became even worse when she later received a tax bill from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS).The IRS said she owed $80,000 in taxes on money she had withdrawn from her retirement accounts and then lost to the scammer. With no way to cover the bill, Bivins sold her home and moved into a small one-bedroom apartment. “I wanted to drive off a cliff,” she said as quoted by Washington Post. “I didn’t know how I was going to live.”Bivins is among dozens of scam victims interviewed by news agency Associated Press and Frontline as part of an investigation into the growing impact of online fraud in the US. The victims came from different age groups and financial backgrounds. They felt confused and abandoned after losing their money.Victims can lose moreThe investigation found that losing money to a scam can be only the beginning of a victim’s financial problems. Some vic...