NEW YORK (PIX11) — A pair of con artists have scammed senior citizens in Queens and Brooklyn out of tens of thousands of dollars by claiming that their relatives needed bail money, according to the NYPD.
In each of the four incidents since May 31, the victim received a phone call claiming that a family member had been arrested and needed money for bail, police said. Then, one of the grifters came to the victims’ homes to collect the payments, authorities said.
One of the targets, a 74-year-old Queens woman, was able to sniff out the scam by contacting the supposedly arrested family member before the charlatan arrived, according to officials. In that case, the scammer fled empty-handed when the senior threatened to call the police. But the other three victims weren’t so lucky.
On May 31, the duo duped an 83-year-old Queens man out of approximately $5,000, authorities said. They struck again on June 8, cheating a Brooklyn man, 77, to the tune of about $10,769, investigators said. And the next day, the pair conned an 88-year-old Brooklyn woman out of approximately $13,900, according to police.
In at least three of the incidents, the fraudster collecting the payment was seen entering an Infiniti sedan, described in two cases as gray. Police on Wednesday released surveillance images of the suspects.
Submit tips to police by calling Crime Stoppers at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), visiting crimestoppers.nypdonline.org, downloading the NYPD Crime Stoppers mobile app, or texting 274637 (CRIMES) then entering TIP577. Spanish-speaking callers are asked to dial 1-888-57-PISTA (74782).
