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On February 9, 2017, one of our Las Vegas offices closed the purchase of a property. Twelve days later, the bank that wired the funds to close tried to recall the wire for some unknown reason. The receiving bank notified our escrow branch of the attempted recall. The escrow branch called the sending bank to tell them the transaction had already closed and the funds had been disbursed.

The bank teller the escrow branch representative spoke to indicated the account holder was an elderly gentleman who came in to authorize the wire and was with a lady that appeared to be his girlfriend. She said he executed the wire authorization.

Fast forward to July 26, 2018 (more than a year after the closing), our offices received a heart wrenching letter from the third–party depositor that read, in part, as follows:

  To whom this may concern:

I am a World War II veteran. I was born December 16, 1920.

I would like to report and make notice to something that happened to me.

There is a lady I met at Costco® last year. Shady Lady is her name. She approached me and we started a friendship. My wife had just passed. She told me that she was a nurse/caretaker. So, I hired her thinking she would cook, clean and help with the necessities of my house. Well the rest of the story is a total nightmare.

I was too embarrassed to tell my son and his wife, or a niece that lives out of state, but I did break down and told a neighbor that I've known for over ten years.

Shady Lady no longer lives in Las Vegas. All the charges that she has for fraud are showing as a Georgia resident. She has taken knowledge of all my accounts; investment funds; pass codes and social security number.

These are the following acts she has committed against me:

1. Wrote a check for $3,000 for the earnest money deposit on the house.

2. Transferred $341,319.86 from my family money market account. She had the funds wired out and transferred to a broker where she purchased a house in Las Vegas. Then she flipped it by selling it in less than a month and then ran off to Georgia with the proceeds.

3. My 2006 Dodge Ram® truck that was paid in full with 14,000 miles she went into my file cabinet where I kept the registration papers and my pink slip and took over my trust. She had her son come by the house one day with the keys and just took my truck. He lives in San Diego. I was too shocked and frightened to stop him. As of today, I have registered a report with the police department for the stolen truck.

4. She opened a Citibank® Costco credit card in my name and charges were continuing until I notified Citibank that I did not open the account nor have I made the purchases resulting in over $7,000 in charges.

5. Shady Lady opened a Home Depot® Project loan under my name in Georgia. She had some work done on her house and charged it to the card in my name. I am in the process of contacting Home Depot to let them know the account was not opened by me.

6. Shady Lady used my name to get internet service through Cox® Communications.

7. Shady Lady used my name to get cellular service, a new iPad® and iPhone® through AT&T®.

He sent copies of the same letter to the Attorney General, all three credit bureaus and the Social Security Administration. We received a copy of the letter as well, because we closed on the home purchase mentioned in the letter.

The escrow officer reviewed the file and found third–party deposit instructions executed by the depositor. She reached out to him after receiving the letter to see if he was making a claim. He was not. He wanted everyone involved to know Shady Lady was a crook so they would not continue to do business with her. He told our offices there was an ongoing law enforcement investigation of her criminal acts.

 

 
 

MORAL OF THE STORY

When reading his letter it reminded me so much of my dear Grandfather who would have easily fallen for the same scam. If you have elderly relatives or neighbors make them aware of the possibility of being scammed. Stay–in–touch with them in case they are ever duped into giving their life savings over to a complete stranger.

 
 

 

 
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