Monroe Review

Dundee Woman Reports Attempted Cash Scam

An attempt to scam a 75 year old Dundee Woman out of nearly $12,000.00 in cash was thwarted by the victim, even after she had sent a package of cash to a location in Las Vegas, NV. 

The scam began on Tuesday afternoon with a call from someone claiming to represent Geek Squad, an on-line technology service.  The caller told the victim that she was entitled to a $120.00 refund on her computer and instructed her to get online and go to a website and follow his phone directions.  

The victim followed the caller's directions and when told to input $120.00 into a line on the computer, she began typing $ 1 2 0  and  attempted to enter the decimal . point and two more zeroes.  However the decimal point never displayed and the caller claimed that the victim had just typed in $12000 which he claimed was just deposited in to her bank and will show up on the next business day.  After convincing the victim that the caller would lose his job and that the money had to be returned now, the caller instructed the woman to withdraw the nearly $12,000.00 in cash and send it to him overnight to a location in Las Vegas, NV.  

After convincing the victim to complete this task, the victim went to her bank, withdrew the money and traveled to the UPS Store in Monroe, MI to package-up and send the cash to Las Vegas.  After leaving the store and returning home, the victim realized she was likely scammed.  Fortunately, the victim returned to the UPS Store and thanks to some fine work by the UPS staff, they were able to retrieve the package and recover all the money before it was shipped.  The victim then notified the Dundee Police Department of the scam.

Dundee Police investigators have reached out to UPS Security, Las Vegas Metropolitan Police and federal law enforcement for assistance in identifying the scammer, who had used a false name and a pharmacy location in Las Vegas as the intended delivery target.  

We share this incident to alert others of the various types of clever scams which happen daily throughout the country, including right here in Dundee yesterday.  Scammers often target senior citizens.   Please share this.  There is no need to point out the obvious.  The 75 year-old victim is aware she was scammed and almost lost the money.  Let's work on making sure this doesn't happen to someone else we know and care about.

Original source can be found here.