(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — DuPage County officials plan to offer information to senior citizens next week about how to avoid being scammed.
“If the investment return looks too good, it’s probably not legitimate,” says DuPage County Treasurer Gwen Henry.
Henry says even one of her own family members was scammed $500,000 by someone convincing her she had won $2 million but needed to pay the “taxes” before she could get her money.
The relative not only was out the half-million dollars but also had to legitimately pay more than $175,000 in taxes for withdrawing money from her investment account, Henry said.
Henry says other frauds are perpetrated on unsuspecting seniors via email or social media.
“You ever get anything from the Russian ladies or the Ukrainian ladies offering to be your girlfriend? It will happen. It’s happening a lot and people respond and, especially, if they’re lonely.”
DuPage County Recorder Kathleen Carrier said people also need to watch for scammers who would transfer ownership of a senior’s home to the fraudster. She says, many times, the scammer is someone close to them.
“Sometimes, they know the person and they will fraudulently come in and record a deed transferring the ownership to them. And the homeowner won’t even know until they want to sell or maybe refinance and then they find out the house doesn’t belong to you,” Carrier says.
Henry, the treasurer, says she saw that happened to an older man who had signed up for the DuPage County property fraud alert program.
Henry and Carrier say some scammers pretend to be relatives or pretend to be acting on behalf of them.
“I know one case where they wanted $3,000 in Apple gift cards, so the grandfather went out and bought them, called them and gave them the numbers and then they called them again the next day and said that wasn’t quite enough,” Henry said.
She says any time someone wants you to settle an obligation with gift cards, don’t do it.
Also taking part in next week’s info session will be representatives of the DuPage County State’s Attorney and Sheriff’s Offices and other local experts.
The “Protecting Seniors and Their Assets” program will be Friday Sept. 2 from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the DuPage County JTK Administration Building, 421 N. County Farm Road in Wheaton.
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