An elderly Louisiana man is tricked into getting into a car with a stranger and withdrawing money from an ATM. This “strange” case could be the latest scam aimed at well-meaning older men and women.
Officials say two scammers claiming to be from abroad and working with a local charity approached victims and asked them to pick them up in Terrebon Parish, about an hour southwest of New Orleans. Persuaded.
According to Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office, they took him to a local bank, where he withdrew an undisclosed “large amount of money” under false pretenses, which the suspect later stole. He put the man back in the car and took off.
The sheriff’s office called the incident “bizarre” in comments to Fox News Digital, but it shows that cunning criminals are targeting victims for easy cash. I warned you of the possibility.
“I would say it’s strange to our community,” said Lt. Blake Tabor. “We know this is unique to us, even without information that indicates it has been seen in other jurisdictions.”
“This could certainly show how suspects in these types of crimes are changing their tactics and becoming more daring. I think you could certainly argue that,” Tabor said. Added.
In-person fraud targeting seniors is rare, but it has happened before, including men and women tricking seniors into withdrawing money from ATMs in Bossier City, Louisiana in 2021.
Scams targeting seniors are increasingly conducted online or through phone calls from criminals. Last year in Michigan, a couple lost his $350,000 after receiving an alert on his computer telling him to call a phone number. The suspect who received the call pretended to be Apple support, and the couple was forced to make multiple withdrawals from multiple banks and transferred the money to a Bitcoin ATM.
A local detective said at the time that the gold was “nearly impossible to trace” and would likely never be recovered.
Tabor said the amount of fraud his office has seen in recent years correlates with how crime has increased across the United States in recent years, but reiterated that face-to-face fraud is rare. bottom.
Also, crime in Terrebon parish does not appear to be targeted.
“I think it was a crime of opportunity,” said Tabor. “I think all the indications are that they just saw the man and contacted him at that point.”
Tabor advised that people, especially the elderly, should be on the lookout for potential scammers who try to tug on a victim’s heartstrings before stealing funds.
“What we’ve seen in older people is that suspects tend to target social issues that may be close to and dear to them,” he said. I think it’s normal for scammers to try to use information that actually works in the hearts and souls of their victims.”
Tabor called on Americans to use “common sense” when interacting with strangers and to look out for “red flags,” especially the general public should not ride in a car with a stranger. bottom.
“The suspects claimed to be from outside the country,” Tabor said of the specific incident in his jurisdiction. Claims to want to make money.They wanted to take him personally to a financial institution.Many of these decisions are not decisions we would like someone to make. .”
This incident is still under investigation. Anyone with information about the incident is asked to alert authorities, such as by calling Terrebonne Parish Sheriff’s Office Detectives ((985)876-2500) or by submitting a tip on CrimeStoppersBR.org..
