A 71-YEAR-OLD woman saw $64,000 vanish from her bank account after receiving home repair services from scheming roofers.
The two men tricked the Texas woman into allowing them to perform unnecessary repairs, ultimately leaving her with a damaged home and empty bank account.
GettyA 71-year-old woman from Texas was scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars by two roofers[/caption] GettyThe elderly woman lost $64,000 thanks to the fraudsters[/caption]The homeowner from Tyler, Texas – roughly 100 miles east of Dallas – was left with her home in shambles after roofers fraudulently charged her for unnecessary repairs.
The woman met the two men in late March when they visited her home and informed her that her roof was “unstable,” she told local CBS affiliate KYTX-TV.
One of the roofers stood on the roof and jumped, sinking a little and indicating a soft spot.
This concerned the Tyler woman, pushing her to agree to allow the two men to do work on her home.
Suspect Levy Aaron Lee and a co-conspirator charged the 71-year-old four times the cost of a new roof to repair damage that they had caused, per documents obtained by KYTX-TV.
They left the home damaged, sunk in, and poorly covered with roofing tiles, according to observations by a county deputy.
A third-party contractor visited the woman’s home following the repairs, informing the homeowner that Lee and his co-conspirator had lied to her, the victim told county deputies.
The contractor alerted the 71-year-old that the repairs the suspects conducted were necessitated by the damage they had caused to her home.
The said they would fix up a “rotted chimney flute,” just to paint the roofing tiles around it.
The victim handed the fraudulent roofers six checks and $14,000 in cash, totaling $64,000.
Lee was charged with financial abuse of an elderly person and booked into Smith County jail last month on a $350,000 bond.
His co-conspirator allegedly insisted that all checks be made out to Lee and has not yet been charged.
SCAMS ON SCAMS ON SCAMS
Scams are on the rise, with the Federal Trade Commission reporting that Americans are losing more money to fraud than ever before.
There are endless forms of scams, from investment scams and lottery scams to imposter scams and text scams.
Expert Advice: How to protect yourself from fraud
Craig Costigan, the CEO of fraud experts NICE Actimize gave the following tips to readers of The U.S. Sun on how to stay safe from fraudsters.
As the saying goes, trust but verify. Always question your text and email communications. It may not be from who you think it is. Look for giveaways that it is a scam email. If your bank contacts you about a fraud via a text or email, call the number on the back of your credit or debit card to contact the fraud department directly – much safer than giving data to an impersonator. Protect your personal identifying information such as social security cards, your blank checks and other IDs. Always be vigilant. Even the safest and most careful among us have encountered fraudsters – we survivedbecause we reported the activity immediately to our providers, changed our passwords and checked our credit reports for unusual activity. If you are not applying for credit, you might also consider placing a freeze on your credit reports, such as Experian, TransUnion and Equifax, so fraudsters can’t open accounts in your name. You can easily unfreeze your credit when you want to open a new account.Another type of fraud, cryptocurrency ATM scams, involves scammers using virtual currency kiosks, or Bitcoin ATMs, to trick victims into depositing cash.
The money is then converted into cryptocurrency and sent to the scammers’ wallets.
One woman from Ohio fell victim to this kind of scam while she was searching for customer support online.
She came across a phone number that she thought belonged to Microsoft, but in reality, it was a fraudster who had manipulated the search results using a tactic called “search engine poisoning.”
This method involves manipulating search engine results to make a fake number appear legitimate.
The scammer used fear and deception to manipulate the woman into giving remote access to her computer, scaring her by saying she had visited illegal sites and her money was at risk.
She was instructed to withdraw $40,000 from her bank account and deposit it into a Bitcoin ATM to “protect” her funds.
Although a store employee warned the woman, it was too late, and the victim had already lost $20,000.
Others have similarly seen their cash vanish at the hands of scammers.
One retiree was left in a “deep pit” after $280,000 was stolen due to a “protection” call – and $6,000 was stolen first.
Another person was tricked by a con artist into giving him $50,000 – they can’t get their money back and should have never answered the phone.
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