A woman in Florida has been charged with scamming elderly people out of $1 million through a common phone scam. The scam involved calling elderly people at home and claiming to be a representative from their bank. The woman would allegedly use information from their bank accounts to convince her victims that she was an official representative. She claimed that their account had been compromised and that a representative would arrive at their homes to collect their credit and debit cards.
Once the cards had been seized, the woman would reportedly run to the ATM if she had the PIN numbers and buy money orders. According to media reports, the woman had multiple cohorts who were also arrested for taking part in the scheme. This type of scam is so common that law enforcement had issued multiple warnings about it. Unfortunately, hundreds of senior citizens were fooled, and the group is said to have stolen hundreds of thousands of dollars.
The group was arrested in September 2020 and charged with white-collar crimes. According to the authorities, the group had scammed over 250 individuals out of their money. Two of the individuals accepted plea bargains and agreed to work with law enforcement.
How should an individual proceed after being accused of white-collar crimes?
Individuals accused of white-collar offenses could face hefty penalties, including years of prison time and thousands or millions of dollars in fines. Accusations of white-collar crime can include fraud, embezzlement, identity theft, forgery, bribes, tax fraud, tax evasion and criminal conspiracy.
Authorities can spend months gathering evidence before they formally charge an individual with a crime. As a result, it may be important for people to hire an attorney as soon as possible so that they can begin preparing their legal defense. An attorney might be able to help them protect their reputation and defend themselves in court.