The six fraud suspects Arrested in Florida Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody announced Monday that a man has been indicted in the state for stealing approximately $250,000 from elderly people through a “grandparent scam.”
Moody said the suspects contacted elderly people claiming to be their grandson’s lawyers and told them their grandson had been arrested for hitting a pregnant woman with his car and needed bail money. The suspects then arranged for the victim to wire the money to them.
All six suspects — Jairo Izquierdo, Genesis Castro, Wendy Angelina Ortiz, Ada Tiddo, Wandy Castro and Orfa Corniel — Multiple first-degree feloniesThis includes organized schemes to defraud, steal, or criminally use personally identifiable information.
“These scammers knew that most grandparents would do anything to help their needy grandchildren, so they used fear and family members in a convincing fraud scheme to intimidate Florida seniors and steal nearly a quarter of a million dollars,” Moody said in a news release. “Working with our incredible law enforcement partners in South Florida, we were able to thwart this widespread grandparenting scheme, and six scammers have now been held accountable for their crimes.”
The suspected fraudsters allegedly told their victims fabricated stories about their grandchildren and then pressured the elderly people into paying bail.
According to investigators, the suspects instructed the victims to provide the bail money in cash and place it in boxes, which unaware ride-share drivers hired by the suspects would then pick up the boxes and deliver the cash to the arranged location.
“I am incredibly proud of the Miami-Dade Police Department’s Discipline Unit for their exceptional collaboration with the Florida Attorney General and federal agencies in arresting individuals involved in extorting our senior population,” Miami-Dade Police Chief Stephanie V. Daniels said in a statement. “Their dedication, expertise and unwavering commitment to protecting the most vulnerable members of our community are truly admirable.”
In some instances, suspects contacted the same victims multiple times. Demand more cash.
In one case, a senior citizen paid $9,000 but was later told the fee had been increased after a pregnant woman suffered a miscarriage and that she needed a further $18,000.
The suspects then told the same victim that the baby’s father had attacked her grandson for causing a miscarriage, and that the grandson had elbowed a police officer during the attack, requiring an additional $20,000 in bail and $7,500 in court costs. The suspects received more than $54,000 in the fraud.
A similar situation happened to another elderly person, who ended up paying $53,000 to the scammers.
In another instance, the victim paid $8,000, but the suspect contacted her again the next day, demanding another $4,000 for bail for her grandson, claiming the pregnant woman had lost her baby, and the next day, the suspect demanded another $1,700, claiming the grandson had to pay medical bills because of the incident.
Another victim paid $30,000 bail and was later released. An additional $7,000 The bail was increased after the fraudsters claimed the pregnant woman had died.
The suspects targeted elderly people in multiple counties, including Brevard, Broward, Lee, Miami-Dade, Orange, Palm Beach and Sarasota counties.
