Scammed of $2500, victim’s family, Richland cops warn of holiday phone crime on seniors
LaTonia Holloway’s 75-year-old father had just gotten out of bed and was making breakfast on Nov. 2. He got a phone call.
The people on the other line said they were with the Social Security Administration and Department of the Treasury. One said he was a U.S. Marshal. They told Holloway’s father that a member of a drug cartel had stolen his Social Security number and other personal information and was using it to buy drugs and rent cars. They said an arrest warrant was out on her father because of drug purchases.
“They told him they were coming to his home,” Holloway said.
To clear everything up, the callers said the 75-year-old needed to go to a grocery store and buy gift cards to a big box store, then send the numbers on the card.
None of it was real. Her father was scammed out of $2,500 in just a couple hours, Holloway said.
“We’re a small family and we pulled together to make sure he was okay but it still created a hardship for him,” she said.
Now, Holloway and the Richland County Sheriff’s Department are trying to raise awareness about the phone scams and how people can protect themselves. During the holidays, the phone scams increase and often target seniors, Sheriff Leon Lott said.
“Putting the bad guy in jail is not going to prevent this,” he said. “Education is going to prevent this.”
Real police and government officials will never ask for money on gift cards, and if a caller ever asks for gift cards, hang up, Lott and others said.
But once the crime is committed the criminal trail is usually untraceable, leaving victims with no sense of justice and robbed of thousands of dollars sometimes.
The kind of phone scams that increase during the holidays are all similar to the one Holloway’s father experienced, according to Capt. Jerry Maldonado and Sgt. Marsden Roe of the sheriff’s department.
Scammers may cold call hundreds or thousands of numbers or they may target an individual.
If the scammer targets an individual, information about the intended victim may be researched online. The scammer uses that information to make the swindle seem more authentic, Lott said.
The caller presents themselves as some type of authority and pressures the intended victim to get them gift cards and send them the numbers on the cards. The scammer may give a time limit for receiving the cards.
In one scam frequently brought to investigators, the caller gets a senior to answer and tells the senior that a grandchild is arrested or in danger. Often drugs are part of the setup. A scammer may say a person’s grandchild has been arrested as part of a drug cartel.
“They say, ‘We don’t think he’s the ring leader but we can release him if you provide money,’” Roe said.
“They play with these victims’ emotions,” Maldonado said. “They’re pressured, they’re panicked and they think they’re doing the right thing.”
If a scammer ensnares a victim, he may target the victim again, Roe and Maldonado said.
The scams often come from callers in other countries, the investigators said. Once the gift card number is sent, few clues if any exist. But even if Richland investigators could trace the money, if it’s gone overseas, it’s extremely unlikely for the victim to get justice or restitution.
Banks don’t offer restitution to victims because banks see the purchase of the cards as legitimate, Roe and Maldonado said.
The good part is that knowledge of the scam can easily prevent it, Lott said.
“If you don’t know who you’re talking to, don’t talk to them,” he said. Scammers may be persistent and call more than once but just hang up each time.
For Holloway and her father, they can’t undo the scam. The money is likely overseas, and the big box store isn’t offering any help.
The experience has driven her to work with news organizations and authorities to help protect other seniors from these scams.
At first, her father was “down and out because he fell prey to something like this but now he’s like, ‘It’s a learning experience. You got me once but you won’t get me again.’”