Elderly Riverside priest's life savings of over $60K stolen in PayPal scam

RIVERSIDE, Ill. (WLS) -- Father Robert Banzin begins working on his weekly homily the day after he delivers his last one. The 85-year-old is a retired priest, but he continues to celebrate mass on some weekends to keep his mind sharp. That's why he can't believe he fell for a scam that robbed him of his life savings.

"I'm very angry at myself, you know I can't figure out how I allowed myself for this to happen," he said.

Banzin said it began in august with an email he received that appeared to be from PayPal.

"Someone on eBay brought something through PayPal and it came from my account, so this is not me," Banzin said.

He said he assumed PayPal was alerting him that his bank account was being hacked. Because the email did not have a phone number, he googled PayPal to call them to clear things up/.

"When I called it, it was PayPal, who said that needs an investigation, I'll give you one of our investigators, and they were hackers the whole time," he said.

For the next several weeks, Banzin said the so-called investigators gained his trust, convincing him to withdraw money from his account, thinking they were helping him avoid hackers when they were in fact the hackers. In the end, Banzin lost $61,000.

"This is money I have saved throughout all the years, so I was saving for a car, basic things," he said.

The scam is now being investigated by the Chicago Police Department's Financial Crime Unit.

"I just want people to know don't fall for this. Don't open anything you get that you don't recognize or a bill that you don't think you paid or didn't pay," Banzin said.

In the meantime, a deacon at Banzin's Catholic church in Riverside has started a gofundme to replace his life savings.

While Father Banzin is grateful money is being raised to help replace the money, he said what is more important is warning people about sophisticated scams.