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State of Delaware Department of Safety and Homeland Security
Division of State Police
Superintendent Robert M. Coupe |
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DSP News Release: Thursday, October 01, 2009- Overseas Scam Artists Target Local Elderly
Location: State of Delaware
Date of Occurrence: Ongoing
Suspect(s): To be determined
Resume: On Tuesday of this week, a Troop 1 patrol officer was dispatched to the WSFS bank on Marsh Road for a fraud report.
In this case, an 84-year-old female victim advised she had received a post card in the mail (unknown exactly when, but several months ago) for which she could fill out and send back to be enrolled in a sweepstakes. She put her information on this card and put it in the mail.
The victim was then called in July. During this call, the subject on the phone told the victim she had won a $2.4 million dollar sweepstakes. At first, the victim did not believe she had won and hung up. The alleged sweepstakes company then started to call the victim on a regular basis until she finally fell for the scam.
In order to speed up the winnings the victim was advised that she would be sent several checks in the mail. She was then advised to deposit the money in her bank account and in turn wire a portion of the funds to a bank account in Jamaica for tax purposes.
Within several days, the victim received three checks totaling $10,500.00. She did as she was told and ultimately wired over $1,000.00 to the Jamaica account. An alert WSFS bank employee smelled crime afoot and worked to freeze the funds and contacted the police. The checks were also proven to be fraudulent.
This investigation is ongoing.
Unfortunately, this type of crime is all too common and the elderly population seems to be targeted the most. Why? Well, many senior citizens are on fixed incomes. What law enforcement officials have found is that with the rising costs in health care, and other monetary factors, the idea of receiving extra income seems all too tempting for these proposed victims and some fall for this trickery. The fact is that these scam artists know this all too well.
The best way to combat this type of crime when it occurs is to inform the public, and not just the targeted victims. Caregivers and financial institutions alike need to be aware of these types of crimes and work to help those who need looking out for.
Fraud tips have been attached this to release.
<Note: The victim in the above outlined case is NOT willing to speak to the media.>
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