Scammed out of $15k
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FacebookI just saw a story on the local news about a guy who got scammed out of close to $2400 last fall, and then got scammed again for $15k just recently. Apparently a man and woman claiming to be police detectives (complete with badges) showed up at his door earrlier this week claiming that they were following up on his previous fraud claim (from the first scam). They said that they had now had suspects, and had reason to believe they might be involved in a counterfeiting ring. They went on to say that they needed this poor guy’s help… They accompanied him to the bank where he withdrew $15k that he had been saving for retirement, handed it over to them, and agreed to meet them at the police station. Not surprisingly, the ‘detectives’ never showed up. Clearly, this guy wasn’t too bright, as the story that the scammers fed him definitely didn’t add up… But it was pretty sad just the same. I have to hand it to the victim, though… He was clearly humiliated, but he still went on TV to warn others about the scam and caution them not to fall for it.
Published on January 25th, 2006 - 13 Comments
Filed under: Miscellany
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About the author: Nickel is the founder and editor-in-chief of this site. He's a thirty-something family man who has been writing about personal finance since 2005, and guess what? He's on Twitter!
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I find this strangely humorous for some reason. But yeah, it is sad…
Comment by Blaine Moore — Jan 25th 2006 @ 12:42 pmSo why did the cops need the $15k? Did he really think that by withdrawing $15k, he was actually getting the bills he himself deposited?
seriously… there are some dopes out there. poor guy…
Comment by jim — Jan 25th 2006 @ 1:09 pmJim, that’s what it sounds like… However, notte that the previous scammers (who may have actually been the same people) *took* money from him, they didn’t give it to him. Why then would the cops need to see the money (even if he believed that the bank actually sets aside the exact same dollars for later withdrawal). So it’s even dumber than it sounds at first.
Hmm. Even if that $15k were counterfeit, did this guy think the bank was going to give him the same bills he deposited possibly a long time ago back to him?
Hey, anyone else wanna come with me to his house to see if we can trick him a third time?
Comment by Nick — Jan 25th 2006 @ 1:26 pmI feel bad for the guy. I wonder how long many times he got scammed in his life and why he never learned his lesson.
Comment by Loi Tran — Jan 25th 2006 @ 1:48 pmI know this will make me sound cold, but I have a tough time feeling sorry for the guy!
Comment by Will Kirby — Jan 25th 2006 @ 2:28 pmDidn’t someone say “there’s a sucker born every minute?”
Comment by FMF — Jan 25th 2006 @ 2:39 pmP. T. Barnum
Comment by Andy — Jan 25th 2006 @ 9:53 pmSometimes you think that these type of stories are made up because I don’t see how anyone could fall for such an obvious scam.
Comment by Matt Hartrich - Buffalo, NY — Jan 28th 2006 @ 12:09 amI feel so bad for the guy that for $20K I’ll help him find out who those bastards were.
Comment by Jack — Feb 3rd 2006 @ 3:45 pmTo hand over $15k to anyone obviously wasn’t a smart move, but I wouldn’t be surprised if this person needed the money more than most. There are stories every day of con artists taking the life’s savings of old and possibly feeble minded people. I haven’t seen the article, but people who show signs of Alzheimer’s are prime targets. I hope other commenters who aren’t showing much compassion don’t ever have to worry about an older relative. And for those who do, this is yet another example of something to watch out for.
Comment by Bryce Fowler — Jan 28th 2008 @ 3:45 amHow does somebody that dense even have 15k liquid like that!
Comment by AJ — Jan 31st 2008 @ 1:30 pm@Jack – I’ll do it for 17.5
@Bryce – I’m only kidding with both of these comments. Only scum would prey on the elderly or disabled and I hope they are caught and punished.
Comment by AJ — Jan 31st 2008 @ 1:32 pm