Federal officials crack down on scam that fooled Athens woman
The Athens-Clarke police 911 center received a call from a 51-year-old Athens man on Monday who reported his mother was the victim of a money scam perpetrated over the telephone in which she was lead to believe her daughter-in-law was in jail.
The 81-year-old woman was tricked into making a wire transfer of $5,802 to a caller, who portrayed himself as the jailed woman’s lawyer, according to Athens-Clarke police.
On Tuesday the U.S. Middle District Attorney’s Office in Macon announced it was joining the U.S. Justice Department’s Transnational Elder Fraud Strike Force in an effort to protect older adults from such fraud. The Middle District includes Athens.
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The Strike Force is targeting sophisticated fraud schemes aimed at older adults, such as the one reported in Athens, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney. Among those investigating these cases are the FBI and Homeland Security.
“The scams are diabolical, robbing money and dignity from people who have worked and sacrificed a lifetime,” Middle District Attorney Peter D. Leary said in a prepared statement.
Strike force targets 'grandparent scams'
During the past year, the agency pursued cases against perpetrators of the “grandparent scams,” also known as “person-in-need scams,” that begin when a con artist contacts an older adult and poses as a grandchild or other family member, who is in jeopardy and needs money.
The news release also noted that since March 2020, more than 148,000 victims of scams have received more than $366 million as a result of a 2017 criminal resolution by the government with Western Union for its “willful failure to maintain an effective anti-money laundering programs and its aiding and abetting of wire fraud.”
In the recent Athens case, the victim was told her daughter-in-law had been in a wreck that injured a pregnant woman and that she needed to wire the money to California by making a wire transfer at a gas station on Lexington Road.
The victim was actually unsure how to make the transfer, so the man stayed on the phone with her while he helped complete the transaction, according to the police report.
After the woman sent the money, she never received a reply, so she called her son who informed his mother that his wife was not in an accident nor in jail.
The U.S. Attorney has advised people that if they know someone 60 or over and is a victim of financial fraud to call the fraud hotline at 1-833-372-8311. Help will be provided on a case-by-case basis.
This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Athens woman falls prey to scam now targeted by federal law agents
