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Senior citizen
telephone scam
alert issued
A woman is bilked out of
By Jaymes K. Song
$94,700, police say
Star-BulletinPolice are alerting Oahu senior citizens about two telephone scams.
In one of the scams, a 75-year-old Salt Lake woman reported losing $94,700.
The caller told her she had won a sweepstakes and that she would need to pay the taxes to collect the money, said CrimeStoppers coordinator and Detective Letha DeCaires.
The woman withdrew thousands of dollars over an 18-month period and sent the callers the money. She has never received any of her sweepstakes "winnings."
Police say the scam is similar to many others that have been reported lately.
"They're hitting now," DeCaires said. "But they've always existed."
The second group of suspects attempted to steal money from 75-year-old Isabel Anduha, but were foiled.
"I'm a wisecracker," said Anduha, a retired federal court librarian. "I worked so hard in my life for my money, why should they take it?"
On Monday, a male caller who identified himself as "Larry Jones" from Las Vegas told her she was eligible for a portion of the $100 million prize in the "German Lottery" from the "Klaussen Service" company.
He asked Anduha for her savings account number to withdraw money for the lottery ticket.
She gave them the number, but then closed the account and reported the call to police.
"I told them, 'you folks must be ripping people off,' " Anduha said. "I said, 'I don't want to be ripped off. I'm a poor old lady.' "
DeCaires said it is best to end the call immediately when people ask for money, credit card or bank numbers to receive a prize or a larger sum of money. Then call police or CrimeStoppers at 955-8300.
