A Butler Township couple was scammed out of $9,000 on Wednesday and they have shared their story in the hopes that others will not fall for the same cyber plot.

Dennis Hindman, 73, and his wife, who did not want her name published, are avid shoppers on Amazon. The Hindmans were attempting to return an item that was wrongly mailed to them when a pop-up window appeared on their web browser telling them they were hacked for $500 and to call a number to get their money back.

Hindman said they thought the number was for an Amazon employee, so they called for instructions. The caller, who wasn't identified, told them that they would send $500 back into their account as a reimbursement.

“That's where it all started,” Hindman said.

The phony Amazon employee called them back and told them that he had accidentally sent the Hindmans $5,000 into their bank account, instead of $500. Hindman took the man at his word and agreed to buy $4,500 in gift cards as a way to return the money to the caller.

“So, we did that. Fella on the phone asked for the numbers on the back of gift cards,” Hindman said. “Maybe 20 minutes later, the guy comes back to us and says those cards aren't good. We gotta do it again. So, then we did it a second time for another $4,500.”

By the end of it, they realized they were out $9,000 dollars and that the caller was not actually an Amazon worker. They reported the incident to the Butler Township Police, who did not return a request for comment.

The first set of cards that the Hindmans bought were from Giant Eagle and the second were from Sam's Club. Hindman said that the police thought employees with both stores should have alerted the Hindmans to the suspicious purchases of such large amounts of gift cards.

“With Christmas season coming upon us, we don't want someone else to get tricked into this,” Hindman said about why he is sharing his story. “They might be thinking they're talking to Amazon, but they're talking to a scammer. Nobody alerted us about anything, so that's what I want to put out there.”

Hindman described his family as middle class and said the $9,000 loss will significantly hurt them. Their main income source comes from his work as an electrician. On the side, he serves as a pastor.

The type of scam that Hindman faced is known as phishing. According to the federal trade commission, there are thousands of scams like these that occur everyday and, according to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center, Americans lost $57 million to phishing scams in 2019.

In some cases, lost money can be recovered.

The FBI's Recovery Asset Team was created to streamline communications with financial institutions and FBI field offices in an attempt to stop the transfer of money in scam situations. The team successfully recovered more than $300 million for victims in 2019.