Yes, and I just found out today. I don’t know what to do next.
This morning my sister messaged me stating that she's going to need $2,000. That's a ridiculously big number and I then asked why does she need such a large sum of money. Well, when she arrived home we had a private discussion and then she broke down crying stating that the military is after her and going to throw her in jail if she doesn't proceed to give them another $2,000. And I was like, "Wait, what? You gave them money?" Yes, she did give them money... over $3,000 worth of her money.
I was stunned, because... well, I guess I'd never thought this would happen to me or my family. But it did, and I was asking numerous of questions. How, why, and what started all of this? I won't get into too much detail, but she gotten involved with someone online who proceeded to leak her personal phone number to scammers who pretended to be high ranking military officers. Made these claims that they are from the military, and then shown "photos" of themselves (which they probably took someone else's online) and then stated they are going to help her because she's being scammed by her online partner, but in order to do that she must pay them $3,000.
So, she first gotten them wired into her bank account and did direct transfers. This was going on for months, and then after they ate up everything in her bank accounts they started making threats against her stating that if she doesn't pay them more money then they'll arrive at her door and throw her in jail. Afterwards she begins to pay them with paypal / gift cards and to send pictures as proof ( which she did ). So now, she's crying, begging me for $2,000 because she doesn't want to get in serious trouble with local law enforcement.
What made me realize this was a scam are sending the gift cards and making repeated threats. Why would any high ranking officer threat a person with jail time over gift cards? Anyways, I told her to not send these people anymore money and that she's being scammed. She is scared senseless right now because they gave her a due date to receive the money. As of right now I am looking up forums and websites that can deal with these types of situations, but I don't know where to start. Can someone please help me on what to do? Anything would be helpful.