Northeast Philly grandmom out thousands of dollars after Facebook scam

NORTHEAST PHILADELPHIA (WTXF) - A Northeast Philadelphia woman is out several thousand of dollars after falling victim to an apparent scam on Facebook messenger. She says she thought it was legitimate.

Dot Eagan is a trusting soul, which is a perfect target for someone trying to scam the sweet grandma and animal lover from Northeast Philadelphia.

She says it started when she got a message on Facebook messenger from Kay who is her good friend from church.

"She said that she won some type of government grant and she said my name was third on the list," Dot explained.

Dot says her friend gave her a contact number, which she called to get information about how she could apply for the grant. The more you paid the more money you got.

Feeling like it was real and legitimate on June 20, Dot sent $3,000 dollars via Western Union. She was supposed to receive the windfall via FedEx, but then got a text saying she needed to buy a $100 iTunes gift card in order for the money to be delivered and to take a picture of the card and the bar code which she did. However, it didn't end there they wanted 4 more gift cards

Now, the red flags were going up. Dot messaged her friend who told her she would call her later. A few days later, she stopped by her house only to learn. Kay never contacted her and some how the scammer hacked into her friend's account. Dot never got her money.

Her beloved 11-year-old Pit Bull named Hammer has cancer and she was hoping to use some of it to pay for his costly treatment and help her family out. Sadly, now she knows better.

"You live and learn just so nobody else falls for it," Dot said.