'Sweetheart Swindler' Sentenced for Theft of $59,000, Exploitation of Elderly Adult

A woman who has been called a “sweetheart swindler” was sentenced Monday for withdrawing money from an older man’s bank account.

Phanta Daramy, 57, of Northeast D.C., was sentenced to seven years in prison with all but two years suspended and five years of supervised probation.

According to police statements and court documents, Daramy met John Andrews, 81, inside of a Giant grocery store and eventually married him. Between September and October 2015 she allegedly withdrew $59,000 from his Bank of America account. When Daramy later attempted to withdraw another $50,000, the bank called police.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge Anne K. Albright also ordered Daramy to pay restitution of $65,000 to Andrews and have no further contact with him.

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"Sweetheart Swindler" Sentenced for Theft of $59,000, Exploitation of Elderly Adult

Exploitation of Elderly Woman by a "Friend" is Another Chapter in an Increasingly Common Story

No one who knew Erma Louise Giaccetti would have ever taken her as someone capable of being conned.

At age 84 in 2008, the Independence woman was a presence. She stood 5 feet 10, a railroad engineer’s widow with a sweep of coiffed white hair, a thin cigarette poised in her fingers and a gossipy tongue that, to the dismay even of her family, could turn as cold as it was more often kind.

Joyce Ciaccetti

“She was very domineering,” said daughter-in-law Joyce Giaccetti. “She would talk constantly about people. I think that’s why she didn’t have many friends.”

But in the summer of 2008, she got one: Linda Gayle Scaife, a neighbor from decades ago who had returned to the Kansas City area, knocked on Louise Giaccetti’s door and suddenly became what the widow called her “new best friend.” Giaccetti couldn’t have been more wrong. Over the next three years, until her death, her family ties were destroyed. She lost her home and most of her life savings.

As revealed by family and court documents, the deceit and theft perpetrated by Linda Scaife could easily serve as a cautionary tale for all those concerned about financial exploitation of the rapidly growing number of elderly Americans.

The scams have a vast range: greedy children and paid caregivers writing checks on their elders’ savings, identity and Medicaid fraud, unscrupulous financial advisers, and “sweetheart” scams that use romance to prey on people’s affections and bank accounts.

“The first thing I can tell you is that anyone who tells you they know how much of this is going on is blowing smoke. We don’t know,” said Doug Shadel, an expert on financial fraud with AARP in Washington state. “The reason we don’t know is that people are embarrassed to admit they’ve been taken. There is a lot of suffering in silence.”

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Exploitation of Elderly Woman by a "Friend" is Another Chapter in an Increasingly Common Story

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