By Gus Saltonstall
An Upper West Side elderly man was scammed out of nearly $10,000 by a person saying that his son was under arrest and needed to pay bail, police said on Tuesday. This is the second such crime that has occurred in the past few weeks.
On September 15, a 74-year-old man was in his apartment, when he received a call from a man stating that his son had been arrested, but that he could not talk to him, police said. The scam artist “coerced the victim under false promise to turn over $9,500 dollars to him in the vicinity of West 62nd Street and Riverside Boulevard,” a police report said. The 74-year-old’s son was never under arrest, though, and the man who collected the money fled the Upper West Side street in an unknown direction.
This recent scam comes a few weeks after a 78-year-old woman was in her apartment at West 62nd Street, when she received a call from a man pretending to be her grandson stating that he also needed $9,500 for bail money, police said.
The scam artist sent a courier to pick up the money the next day, which the woman handed over, police said.
Anyone with information in regard to these incidents is asked to call the NYPD’s CrimeStoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477) or for Spanish, 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
What more can I add? Scammers have been around forever. The NYPD should easily find these lowlifes and arrest them. But then again, our soft on crime DAs will let them off. It’s a shame.
Letting someone off for graffiti is not the equivalent to being soft on higher levels of crime like fraud and extortion. Don’t correlate things that have nothing to do with each other.
Graffiti, really? How about letting off for punching random people?
Alvin Bragg lets all kinds of criminals go he said it himself he doesn’t hide it he doesn’t have too. He said the ONLY people he wants to put in jail is people who commit:
1. Murder
2. Attempted Murder with a weapon and serios injury.
3.Rape
4 Certain domestic violence crimes.
5.Certain white collar crimes.
Not a long list
This is from his Day One Memmo:
1. The Office will not seek a carceral sentence other than for homicide or other cases
involving the death of a victim, a class B violent felony in which a deadly weapon causes
serious physical injury, domestic violence felonies, sex offenses in Article 130 of the Penal
Law, public corruption, rackets, or major economic crimes, including any attempt to
commit any such offense under Article 110 of the Penal Law, unless required by law. For
any charge of attempt to cause serious physical injury with a dangerous instrument, ADAs
must obtain the approval of an ECAB supervisor to seek a carceral sentence.
Most of these scams aren’t run locally, or even from within the country. It’s actually fairly unusual to have “couriers” or whatever involved. It’s a big problem.
The Detectives’ Endowment Association of the NYPD would like to remind everyone to be aware of phone, text, and email scams asking for bail or other monies for relatives in a jam. These calls from spoofed phone numbers are scam artists preying on the elderly who will panic. One of our NYPD Undercover Detectives recently oversaw the culmination of a multi-year, international investigation into a bail scam targeting elderly members of the NYC community. These scammers operated out of call centers in the Dominican Republic. More than 100 perpetrators were arrested, and millions in cash, property, vehicles, and weapons were seized by authorities. REMEMBER: The police will never demand cash to be mailed, picked up, or wired for bail.
Another scam re a 90 year old woman happened on her computer. It said McFee was to be updated. Somehow the scammer used her card and she was scammed out of $10,000.
Call credit card company Immediately yo dispute the charge
Sad.
Remember: no police are going to have you handing over cash/gift cards to randos on the street!
IF YOU’RE FEELING PRESSURED TO GIVE SOMEONE MONEY ON SHORT NOTICE, SLOOOOOOOOW DOWN. WAIT. CALL A FRIEND FIRST. They’re not going to execute your loved one in 24 hours!