The thieves were after 40 thousand dollars in cash, and they used fear to target the would-be victim in Harford County.
WATCH: Police save Harford County woman from scam
“A 78-year-old female was contacted by someone identify themselves as being on behalf of her financial institution, saying that they were concerned about fraud and that they were going to transfer money into her account,” said Harford County Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler, “and she needed to withdraw that money and send it back to them.”
And withdraw it she did from a Wells Fargo branch, before boxing it up and taking it to this UPS Store on Churchville Road.
The following day, she had second thoughts and notified police, who got to the store just in time.
They would later learn it was being sent to the address of a home in Florida, which had not been occupied for months.
Tragically, these various scams are quite common, and detectives had just wrapped up this case when they learned of another, but this time, they were too late.
“In that instance, they were sent to different banking institutions, and they went to one; the female victim went into one and actually was told, ‘Hey, we think you’re being scammed. Are you being scammed?’” Gahler recounted, “And because the scammer, again, said, ‘Don’t admit to that’ or ‘They’re going to ask you that. Say no,” she said, “She said ‘no,’ and she sent the money.”
The total loss—146 thousand dollars.
Gahler says the scammers do their homework; they know where you keep your money, and they use a sense of urgency and fear to encourage victims to act immediately.
“You’ve got to be able to separate yourself from the conversation and say, ‘If this is legitimate, then I will call you back. Give me a phone number. I’m going to call my son, my daughter. I’m going to call a family member. I’m going to check this with police or with my bank institution.”
