Vultures. A mother and a daughter were arrested for skimming through the local obituary pages and calling up the spouses pretending to be from the bank or credit card company. They would say that the recently departed owed the company money, and the survivor needed to provide a blank check or a credit card.

The mother plead guilty and was sentenced to three years probation, 90 days in jail, 90 days of tether, $2,110 in fines, $5,000 in restitution, and 300 hours of community service. Her offer to make it up to the victim by doing odd jobs for him was rejected by the judge.

“I appreciate your suggestion (of doing work for the victim), but I don’t want you to come even close to the victim,” the judge said. “I don’t want you to care or be close to anyone who is elderly.”

The daughter was extradited to another state.

It’s important to impart to elderly friends or family the need to never give out personal information over the phone to anyone. If you suspect your friends or family might be falling victim to elder fraud, be sure to ask the 5 questions that can reveal elder fraud.

Mother-daughter team accused of scamming seniors through obits [WNDU via International Federation of Elder Financial Crime Fighters Facebook Group]
Con artist gets probation [South Bend Tribune]

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