Woman Scammed Elderly Man Out Of Nearly $300K: Wallingford Police

WALLINGFORD, CT — A 19-year-old Bridgeport woman is accused of scamming an elderly Wallingford man out of nearly $300,000, according to police.

Wallingford police received a complaint on March 4 regarding a 72-year-old who had fallen victim to a Publishers Clearing House scam, resulting in a financial loss of nearly $300,000, according to Officer Alex Torres.

Torres said the victim received multiple phone calls from unknown individuals, informing him that he had won prize money in the amount of $9.6 million.

The victim was told that in order to collect the prize money, he needed to send funds to pay the prize money taxes, according to Torres.

Torres said the victim’s family discovered that a total of seven checks were written to unknown individuals. Five checks written out to Nyieshia Upchurch out of Bridgeport, according to Torres.

Police obtained an arrest warrant for Upchurch following a lengthy investigation, Torres said.

Wallingford police detectives and a task force officer found Upchurch at a family member’s residence in Bridgeport on Oct. 22 and she was arrested without incident, according to Torres.

Upchurch was charged with first-degree larceny, conspiracy to commit first-degree larceny, first-degree telephone fraud and conspiracy to commit first-degree telephone fraud.

She was held in lieu of a $75,000 bond with a court date of Nov. 5.