TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Law enforcement and consumer advocates continue to sound the alarm about financial crooks taking advantage of Floridians.
Bradenton Police Chief Melanie Bevan says crooks from around the country are targeting her community, using tricks and intimidation, to steal their life savings.
“There are just heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story when you hear from these folks and it’s just a variety of crimes but it’s always the same,” Bevan said. “They just fall victim for a variety of reasons they feel the need to hand over their money and so often it’s just hard to get it back.”
“There are just heartbreaking story after heartbreaking story when you hear from these folks and it’s just a variety of crimes but it’s always the same. they just fall victim for a variety of reasons they feel the need to hand over their money and so often it’s just hard to get it back.”
Within the past year, Beven says crooks have run off with more than $2 million dollars, stolen from Bradenton residents. Schemes that involve bitcoin are popular.
One of her ongoing investigations involves Heather Burbach.
She says the caller claimed to be a known investigator with the DEA and said she was in big trouble, and listed charges like money laundering and drug trafficking.
She was scared. Then they told her that her identity must have been stolen but the government could help protect her money until this was cleared up.
The crook stayed on the phone with with her until all of her $6,200 was inside the machine.
The FBI reported that during that same time period, older Americans were tricked out of $3.4 billion in the past year.
Detective Jim Curulla, who leads that team, told me an elderly veteran lost $1.5 million, after crooks convinced him to buy and fork over gold bars.
The crooks came to his house, posing as federal agents and said they had warrant for his arrest.
Then their “supervisor” started calling.
“She proceeded to call this victim once to twice a day for almost a month, getting his trust and eventually she said he was going to help them solve social security fraud,” Curulla said. “She needed some money to use and they were going to transfer some of his money and use that as the bait.”
Curulla said he recently arrested the man who picked up the gold bars, but there’s only a slim chance of recovering the man’s money.
The big takeaway is that crooks are calling the victims, often pretending to be law enforcement and threatening arrest for financial crimes.
Read More: Law enforcement warning: Bitcoin schemes on the rise