International scam targets seniors, stealing $50,000 through ‘grandparent scheme’

A man from the Dominican Republic living in Cleveland was charged with defrauding elderly people of $50,000 through a grandparent fraud scheme where scammers posed as victims’ children. The scheme involved the victims handing over money in envelopes labeled as “legal documents” to unsuspecting Uber and Lyft drivers. The man was working with partners in the Dominican Republic and wired money to them after receiving the cash from victims in Pennsylvania. The scammers targeted elderly people nationwide, with the FBI reporting a significant increase in financial fraud targeting seniors. In a separate case, more than two dozen Canadian nationals were charged in a scheme that bilked $21 million from elderly people in the US. The scammers operated from call centers in Montreal and used cryptocurrency to hide the source of the money. The defendants were apprehended in Canada, except for two individuals who were still at large. The case underscores the growing trend of scammers targeting elderly people and the need for vigilance to protect against such fraud schemes.