Two suspects were indicted by the Utah Attorney General’s Office for taking part in an alleged gift card scheme that targeted primarily the elderly, a fraud that resulted in a $600,000 loss to both the individuals and Walmart.
The charges stem from an extensive multiagency investigation into a fraud ring that resulted in more than $600,000 in losses to a number of victims and to Walmart, Daniel R. Strong with the Utah Attorney General’s Office noted in the indictment filed Thursday.
In the scheme, individuals, primarily the elderly, are manipulated into loading large sums of money onto Walmart gift cards by suspects posing as government agents, a computer service person, bail bondsmen, IRS agents or other rouse.
The investigators also learned that a number of elderly individuals defrauded in the scheme reportedly received a phone call from “someone posing as an authority figure,” the indictment said, and were told they would lose their money if it wasn’t transferred onto a Walmart gift card.
One elderly couple told investigators they were scammed by someone claiming to be a police officer who instructed them to purchase several thousand dollars in Walmart gift cards, the indictment said.
Once the gift cards were purchased, the individuals were instructed to scratch off the code protector on the back of the card and then photograph the card before sending the photo to the caller… St George’s News