COCOA, Fla. — Cocoa police say an online popup tricked a local man into wiring a scammer thousands of dollars of his life savings.

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Luckily, the man’s family managed to put a hold on that transaction. But now, police want to make sure no one else is deceived.

On Wednesday, police got a call from the victim. He was just trying to order a pizza when he saw a popup about his account being compromised. By the time the real scammers were done, it was compromised.

The scammer claimed to be a Microsoft security team member, and even transferred the Cocoa man to an alleged security team leader.

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“There’s a long list of instructions that he did everything from giving remote access to his computer to buying a new cellphone (and) transferring money to another country,” said Yvonne Martinez with Cocoa Police Department.

Police said a local bank clerk was suspicious of the transaction, which as of now still hasn’t been completed. But there were other red flags along the way.

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“The scammer was also telling our victim not to communicate any of this with his family. Well, that’s the first thing you need to do,” Martinez said. “Never, ever, ever give personal information about anything to anyone. First, verify. If someone says they’re something wrong with your bank account hang up, call your bank.”

Cocoa police are still hopeful the victim’s financial institution will be able to return all the money to his account.

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