HENDERSON (KTNV) — The family of a 77-year-old Navy veteran in Henderson reached out to Channel 13 after he fell for a sophisticated scam that cost him his life savings.
It all started last month, when Mitchell Gordon saw a video on social media claiming to promote a government refund website. He thought it was legit, so he entered in his personal information and then paid $200.
Mary Kielar shares his message of warning about the scam that cost him his life savings:
The next day, he decided he wanted his money back. He called the number on the website he was on before, and said somehow, the scammers on the other end took over control of his computer.
Gordon said he then was roped into paying the scammers back, and they asked for $20,000 via wire transfer.
“They called me the next day and they said oh, it didn’t go through. We need you to go to your bank again,” remembered Gordon. He said each time, the scammers had him make up a story about why he was taking out this money. He went to three different branches of the Navy Federal Credit Union.
He deposited more than $25,000 to the same Bitcoin Depot ATM at the Circle K gas station on Lake Mead and Boulder Highway.
In eight days, Gordon lost out on $45,000, which is his life savings.
“I went from middle class to poverty,” Gordon said.
Since Gordon saw the video on Facebook, Channel 13 reached out to Meta to ask why they would allow it on their platforms.
A spokesperson got back to us, saying that scammers continue to change their schemes, making it hard to keep up. But the company says they’re working to weed out the bad actors. In 2025, they removed more than 20 million scam accounts posing as content creators.
Meanwhile, Mitchell Gordon told Channel 13 he just wants other people to keep their hard-earned money and not fall victim to a scam.
“If it sounds fishy, hang up, unplug your computer and all that. If this helps one person save their money, I will feel happy about that,” he said.
Channel 13 is working to get answers for him and will continue to update this story.
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