Elderly Victims Defrauded of Over $100,000 in Wire Fraud Scheme: A Disturbing Trend

By Alan Caldwell

Camden, N.J. – Elderly individuals have become the unfortunate targets of a rising trend in fraudulent schemes, as exemplified by the recent case of Victoria Crosby. U.S. Attorney Philip R. Sellinger announced today that Crosby, a resident of Atlantic City, New Jersey, admitted to engaging in wire fraud and defrauding elderly victims of over $100,000. The scheme involved exploiting vulnerable individuals who had recently lost their spouses or family members.

Using a prepaid cellular phone, Crosby would contact these grieving victims, posing as an employee from a retirement benefit office or a life insurance company. Taking advantage of their vulnerable state, Crosby would inform them that their deceased family member’s life insurance policy was in arrears. To rectify this, victims were coerced into purchasing prepaid cards, providing Crosby with the 10-digit codes on the back.

Once Crosby had access to the codes, she swiftly transferred the funds from the victims’ prepaid card accounts to her own. Furthermore, she withdrew the ill-gotten money from various ATMs across Atlantic City and neighboring areas. This calculated scheme allowed Crosby to fraudulently accumulate $110,380 into her bank account between January and December 2020.

This distressing case took an even more disheartening turn, as it was revealed that Crosby was receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) Benefits from the Social Security Administration, Medicaid Benefits, and living in public housing in Atlantic City with housing assistance through HUD’s Public and Indian Housing Program. Had agencies such as the SSA or HUD been aware of her income, Crosby would have been rendered ineligible for these government assistance programs.

The consequences of such fraudulent activities are severe. Crosby now faces a maximum potential penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, or twice the gross gain or loss from the offense, whichever is greater. Sentencing is scheduled for March 28, 2024.

This case serves as a stark reminder of the importance of safeguarding our elderly population from financial exploitation. It highlights the need for increased awareness, vigilance, and protective measures in place to prevent individuals like Crosby from targeting our most vulnerable citizens.

FAQ:

1. What is wire fraud?

Wire fraud refers to any fraudulent scheme that involves electronic communication, such as phone calls or emails, to deceive victims and manipulate financial transactions.

2. How can I protect myself or a loved one from falling victim to similar schemes?

Some measures to protect against fraud include being cautious when sharing personal information, verifying the legitimacy of any unexpected requests for funds or sensitive information, and staying informed about common types of scams targeting the elderly.

3. What should I do if I suspect someone is being targeted by a fraudster?

If you suspect someone is being targeted, it is important to report it to local law enforcement and relevant authorities, such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) or the local branch of the Social Security Administration.

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Elderly Victims Defrauded of Over $100,000 in Wire Fraud Scheme: A Disturbing Trend

Georgia’s elderly landowners among those defrauded in alleged timber scheme, Macon DA says

John Barnhardt Cox and Jack David Uselton

Assets of a Middle Georgia timber company were seized Tuesday and its owner was arrested after agents with the Georgia Forestry Commission began a criminal investigation into an alleged scheme that victimized at least 28 landowners, most of them elderly.

Cox Land & Timber Inc., based in Pike County, is accused of a number of “schemes,” including “intentionally misrepresenting the value of the timber harvested and harvested more timber than represented to the victims,” according to a civil lawsuit filed Tuesday in Bibb County Superior Court.
John Barnhart Cox, owner of the company, was charged with felony theft and 49-year-old Jack David Uselton Jr., of McDonough, was charged with misrepresenting the origin or ownership of timber greater than $500. Both men were booked in the Bibb County jail Tuesday and released Wednesday on a $17,000 bond and a $4,050 bond respectively.

Racketeering, exploitation of elderly people and timber mill theft are among the allegations in the lawsuit, which named four other defendants, including Jonathon Ashley May, of Griffin, James Lafayette Weldon, of Evans, Brenda Owings Jones, of Zebulon, and Kelly Zimmerman, of Kennesaw.

The 28 victims are from 16 different counties including Bibb, Baldwin, Dodge, Fayette, Green, Hancock, Henry, Jasper, Lamar, Meriwether, Monroe, Newton, Pike, Spaulding, Talbot and Taliaferro, Macon Judicial Circuit District Attorney David Cooke said at a news conference Wednesday.

At least 17 victims are over the age of 65.

“Our hope is a majority of the victims in this case can receive restitution and recoup the losses they suffered,” Cooke said. “At least one victim has already died. … Another victim is 95.”

The timber company is accused of quoting an elderly man $15,000-$30,000 for the harvest of his timber then paying him only $6,686, according to the lawsuit. It also is accused of harvesting about 655 tons more timber than it declared to another victim on a settlement sheet.

In another accusation, the company allegedly lied to a victim and telling him or her that the property had “extensive beetle damage, which prevented harvesting the amount of timber as quoted,” according to the lawsuit.

In addition to landowners, the company is accused of duping a number of timber mills including Graphic Packaging International in Macon.

The lawsuit alleges Cox’s company “misrepresented the ownership or origin of the timber to the mill owners” to get paid more.

All the businesses’ assets and properties are under the control of receiver John F. Kennedy while the case is pending.

Cooke said Kennedy and a judge will decide if the business will continue to operate.

Reached by phone Wednesday, Cox told The Telegraph, “I just don’t understand it.”

Brian Jarrard, the Macon lawyer representing Cox, said he thinks it is improper for the district attorney’s office “to seize a business’s assets before any testing of their allegations in front of a jury. ... We intent to vigorously defend Mr. Cox and his business.”

Read more here: https://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article219069075.html#storylink=cpy more here: https://www.macon.com/news/local/crime/article219069075.html#storylink=cpy

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Georgia’s elderly landowners among those defrauded in alleged timber scheme, Macon DA says

Georgia’s elderly landowners among those defrauded in alleged timber scheme, Macon DA says

$100,000 Civil Penalty Filed Against Livingston Broker Who Defrauded Elderly Couple

NEWARK, NJ — A Livingston broker’s agent registration will be revoked and he will receive an imposition of $100,000 in civil monetary penalties against him and his company NJLI Advisors L.L.C. after defrauding an elderly couple of at least $280,000, according to Attorney General Gubrir Grewal and the New Jersey Bureau of Securities within the Division of Consumer Affairs.

According to their announcement, Michael Alan Siegel befriended the elderly couple, who were in their 80s, ingratiating himself to them while they were dealing with a significant health issue within the family. Siegel spent hours each week with the elderly husband discussing the stock market, according to the attorney general’s office.

Shortly after the death of a family member, the elderly couple was convinced to transfer their brokerage accounts to a broker-dealer with whom Siegel was associated. In the Summary Penalty and Revocation Order issued by the bureau on Feb. 1, the bureau chief found that Siegel convinced the couple to write him checks to invest in options contracts, which he never purchased. He pocketed the couple’s money and spent it on travel for him and his family members, high-end audio equipment and restaurants.

“The behavior outlined by the Bureau in this case is outrageous and infuriating,” said Grewal. “Taking advantage of an elderly couple during a time when they most need help and empathy is disgusting. The bureau did the right thing by making sure this agent never has the ability to con people again under the guise of being a securities agent.”

Sharon M. Joyce, Acting Director of the Division of Consumer Affairs, said that registered securities agents are entrusted with hard-earned money of their clients. She added that violations like this “must be met with the strongest possible penalties”

According to the bureau chief, it was discovered that Siegel exploited his relationship with the couple between July 2013 and January 2016 by having them write personal checks to him for the purported options investments and commissions for the purported investments. Siegel also violated the policies of procedures of two broker-dealers that he was associated with by accepting checks, loans and gifts from the elderly couple who had accounts with the two firms, according to the bureau.

When the husband died, Siegel continued to direct the elderly widow to write him checks for purported options investments and commissions. According to the attorney general’s office, the widow relied on Siegel for financial decisions and entrusted him with access to her email account, bank accounts and passwords.

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$100,000 Civil Penalty Filed Against Livingston Broker Who Defrauded Elderly Couple

Financial scams target millions of older Americans

Some 5.4 percent of elderly see some form for fraud every year

One in 18 older Americans falls victim to financial fraud or scams annually, and that figure excludes seniors who’ve been financially abused by friends and relatives, a new study finds.

“We’re talking about millions of older adults each year,” said lead author David Burnes, a gerontologist, social worker and professor at the University of Toronto in Canada. “What’s worse, it’s very likely an underestimate.”

The report in the American Journal of Public Health estimates that 5.4 percent of older adults experience some form of fraud or scam each year.

The estimate includes only seniors living on their own and excludes those in institutional settings and most who are cognitively impaired. Complicating the count, Burnes said in a Skype interview, is the fact that victims tend to underreport the scams.

Burnes and his team divided financial exploitation of older adults into two categories — financial fraud and scams perpetrated by strangers or others outside of conventional positions of trust; and financial abuse perpetrated by those in positions of trust, generally friends and relatives.

They reviewed 12 studies involving nearly 42,000 community-dwelling older adults and determined that in every five-year period, an estimated 5.6 percent of older adults are a target of a financial fraud, and 5.4 percent are targeted within one year.

The swindles run the gamut from online romance to counterfeit prescription drug scams, Burnes said.
“Scammers will target and prey on older adults who are lonely, socially isolated and will develop an online relationship and over time will ask them to send money over and over again,” he said.

Most of the studies defined older adults as being at least 65 years old, but two included people as young as 50.

The studies covered scams pertaining to investments, products and services, employment, prizes and identity theft.

Victims often are unable to detect differences between legitimate email calls for help from relatives, for example, and scammers, Burnes said. Victims frequently send money overseas, complicating law-enforcement and recovery efforts across borders, he said.

The authors call on researchers and policymakers to explore ways to prevent financial scams and for health care professionals to screen elders for vulnerability to scams during wellness visits.

Dr. Eric Widera, a geriatrics specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not involved in the new study, agrees that physicians should screen for vulnerability.

“I do agree that physicians should play a role in helping patients by recognizing the signs of possible impaired financial capacity and recognizing elder abuse, because it’s more common than we often think and because it impacts their health and well-being,” he said in an email.

“Unfortunately, while there are a number of elder-abuse screening instruments out there, not all screen for financial abuse, and very little if any screen for scams and fraud,” he said.

Widera fears the new report failed to capture many instances of financial fraud and scams, especially in the most vulnerable.

A previous recent study estimated the one-year prevalence of elder financial abuse in relationships of trust as 4.5 percent. Given that elders could be targeted for both financial abuse and financial fraud or scams, the authors believe nearly 10 percent of older Americans may be subject to some form of financial exploitation each year.

Both doctors and consumers tend to overlook elders’ declining ability to manage their own financial affairs, one of the most common and devastating problems of aging, a 2015 report in the Annals of Internal Medicine found.

The authors of that report, Dr. Mark Lachs of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York and Duke Han of Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, coined the term “age-associated financial vulnerability” to encourage physicians to consider the issue with their patients.

Financial fraud victims may suffer serious health consequences, including major depression, anxiety and premature mortality, the authors of the new study write. Most victims also report feeling anger, stress, betrayal, embarrassment, helplessness and shame.

In addition, victims of elder financial fraud and scams suffer financial losses from which they may never be able to recover.

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Financial scams target millions of older Americans

Gourmet grocer worker defrauds elderly victim

Pinellas Park, Florida --  Police arrested a retail meat salesman Thursday on charges he defrauded an elderly victim of $3,800 in ATM and retail transactions and another $1,200 in stolen checks from two others victims.

Police say Christopher Miller, 41, allegedly used the victim’s Chase and Sam’s Club cards to conduct more than 20 ATM and retail transactions to Gourmet Grocery, where he worked as a salesman selling meats, totaling $3,845 in the city of Pinellas Park. He also defrauded his employer by using a credit card terminal to obtain funds from two other elderly victims -- $751 from one, $528 from another.

This was a not Miller’s first run-in with the law on elder exploitation. His arrest affidavit stated he has exploited others in and around the Pinellas County area.

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Gourmet grocer worker defrauds elderly victim