Elderly Woman Scammed Out Of $7,500 in Fake Prize Scheme

An 84-year-old Fremont woman was conned into sending $7,500 to a man claiming that she had won a $680,000 prize, according to police.

According to the Fremont Police Department, the caller told the woman to mail and wire funds in order to pay for the taxes up front. The woman mailed cash to a fictitious address in Florida and also made wire transfers via Western Union. 

Growing suspicious, the woman alerted the police Thursday. An officer went to the woman’s home where the scammer continued to call. When the officer got on the line and said he was a police officer, the caller hung up.

The officer contacted the post office in hopes of intervening the latest package the victim had sent, but was too late as the package had been picked up just 30 minutes prior, police said.

The officer then took the woman to her bank to check on the wire transfers. 

The bank teller who assisted the elderly woman before said she recognized the scam but that the victim insisted on making the wire payments.

However, the teller said she ensured the funds would not be immediately accessible and misspelled the recipient’s name on purpose to delay the transaction, according to police.

The teller’s actions allowed the victim to recover all of the money she was going to wire transfer, police said.

“The loss could have been significantly worse if it weren’t for her actions,” the Fremont Police Department said in a media release.

When the officer took the victim home, the scammer continued to call a total of seven times.

The victim agreed to change her phone number. Authorities also advised the victim’s bank to alert Fremont police if the victim returned to wire transfers again.

If you have any information about this case or have fallen victim to a scam, contact the Fremont Police Department at 510-790-6800. Anonymous tips may also be left at www.fremontpolice.org/tip or by texting TIP FREMONTPD to 888777 with your message.