Saline County Sheriff Roger Soldan is reminding citizens to be on the lookout for scams that come through your computer or telephone after a couple of women were recently coerced out of thousands of dollars.

Sheriff Soldan tells KSAL News that a 41-year-old woman was hoping to raise her credit score and was searching online for a small loan. A call from someone at “American Loan Company” soon turned into a scam that cost her $1,000 when she agreed to allow an electronic deposit into her account – with a promise that she would pay them back with $500 gift cards. The woman contacted authorities after she realized the deposit was fake.

Authorities are also investigating a scam that cost a 73-year-old Saline County woman $8,000 after her computer was frozen and she called a ‘help line’ from a pop-up ad on her screen.

She believed she was giving her Discover card number to a tech to fix the problem. Moments later, a person claiming to be from Discover called, and convinced her she owed the company $8,000 and that she needed to pay off the debt with gift cards or be arrested. Staff at a local hardware store tried to convince her she was being scammed as she purchased four, $2,000 gift cards. The woman contacted authorities after the scammer demanded the woman send him another $2,000.