A Chicago man has been charged in Lee County with carrying out what authorities are calling a financial scam.

Parth C. Patel of Chicago is charged with theft by deception, a Class 2 felony, and attempted theft by deception, a Class 3 felony, in connection with a possible financial scam in Paw Paw that the Lee County Sheriff’s Office learned about Sunday.

Deputies were told that an individual had earlier been contacted and informed that their Apple account had been “hacked.” That individual was then transferred to a person posing as an FBI agent, who told the individual they needed to pay money to capture the person hacking into the account.

The individual in Paw Paw agreed to pay $40,000. An unknown individual picked up the $40,000 on April 17 from a Paw Paw address, according to a news release.

The “FBI agent” contacted the individual once more and requested an additional $28,500, according to the release. A pick-up time, set for Monday and organized by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office, led to Patel being taken into custody and brought to the Lee County Jail.

He made a court appearance on Tuesday, when he was released from the Lee County Jail pursuant to the Illinois SAFE-T Act and given a May 21 court date.