CLEARLAKE ? Persistence and manipulation paid off for sweepstakes scam artists recently. The victim was a 62-year-old woman from Clearlake Park.
Despite adamant warnings from her daughter, the woman refused to believe that she was being taken and sent $1,350 that can never be recovered.
Ginger Colgate said that several different people contacted her mother over the course of a couple months, claiming to be federal agents assigned to protect the public from Internet scams. They reportedly told the victim that she had won a substantial amount of money, more than million dollars at one point.
“Several different people with several different scams kept calling my mom,” Colgate said. “The whole gist of thing was she won a sweepstakes and needed to send money for insurance costs and processing fees. I kept telling her that this was scam.”
Colgate said that after being contacted by several different people, her mother came to trust one woman, who reportedly swore on the lives of her children that this was a legitimate offer. “The one that she sent her money to, told her that they were a government agency and they were federal agents from the consumer protection program,” Colgate said. “I had a hard time convincing my mother that it was a scam. They were very persistent and identified themselves as federal agents. She would not believe me and finally she dropped it and we didn”t talk about it for two weeks.”
After two weeks of silence regarding the matter, Colgate said she learned that her mother had spent a total of $1,350, including money order fees, in an attempt to claim alleged sweepstakes prize.
“They really played with my mom”s emotions and made her think they were her friends. It”s really sick,” Colgate said, explaining that her daughter is terminally ill and her mother had discussed the circumstances with the scam artists. “They told my mother that they were praying for my daughter and she fell for it.”
Clearlake Police Officer Todd Miller, who handled the incident, said that despite public warning scams such as these are continuing. “It”s sad, but we are seeing more of these scams and the impact is devastating,” he said. “Obviously these are out-of-country scam artists tugging at their heart string. Since they are from out of the country, we don”t have a lot of jurisdiction.”
To avoid becoming a victim, Miller says, “First of all, never send money to someone you don”t know and if you”re in doubt, get a hold of the police department.”
The Clearlake Police Department can be reached at 994-8251.
Contact Denise Rockenstein at drockenstein@clearlakeobserver.com or call her directly at 994-6444, ext. 11.
