A man posing as a police officer has been scamming elderly women out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to police.
“The suspect allegedly first preyed upon an elderly woman on the Upper West Side on June 3, 2011, pretending to be a New York City cop who was investigating her bank account,” the New York Post reported. “He convinced the woman he needed some of her money to proceed with the investigation, police said.”
NBC News reported that the man has targeted at least 24 victims.
“His victims have ranged in age from 73 to 98, police say. Six were in their 90s. One was a man.
In the scam, the suspect calls the victims and claims to be a police officer working on an investigation into their bank accounts.
He tells them he needs money from their accounts as part of the investigation. They arrange to meet, and the victims give him ‘large sums of money,’ police say.”
A brief surveillance video of the man is at nypost.com.
I’m not in favor of multiplying new groups around which we need to create “hate crime” protection, but if ever a just society required that we look out for certain people, it is “widows and orphans.”
Preying on elderly women (and men) should be punishable to the fullest extent, with no exception for claimed mental illness. Whoever did this needs to be locked up–quickly–for his come-to-Jesus moment.
Howard, you have my vote on this one. Impersonating an officer and scamming the elderly sounds like a good one to bring the hammer down on.
Now if we can only make sure the banks GE prosecuted along with this heartless criminal.
This is really disgraceful. Some people have no conscience.
What is definitely needed is more educational programs at banks, senior centers, etc. to inform the elderly that these predators are out there.