A senior citizen lost thousands of dollars after a group of con artists devised a scheme to scam an elderly homeowner.
In 2021, an 80-year-old Missouri woman, who was not identified during the case, hired Gino Rives to fix her roof, believing he was a regular contractor.
two
Rives lied about being a licensed professional and told the woman he could fix her roof as well as renovate her home.
Rives convinced her to write checks to him and others totaling more than $550,000 for your one-bedroom house.
Many of these people did not do the work they were paid for, including a man named Austin James who allegedly helped with the scam.
James collected nearly $100,000 from the woman, claiming he worked on the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, basement and foundation.
The number of checks the victim wrote caused his bank to take notice.
The lender decided to call the City of St. Louis Building Inspector’s Office, where it concluded that the home had received no more than $50,000 in renovations.
Rives was arrested in 2023 and pleaded guilty to defrauding several elderly victims.
James also pleaded guilty and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 14.
He could spend up to 15 years in prison and be forced to pay a fine of up to $250,000.
DOMESTIC SCAMS
In recent years, scammers have not only been targeting people’s money, but also their homes.
A man named Dada from Oklahoma was surprised when he discovered that someone used a quitclaim deed to take his house.
A quitclaim deed allows people to easily transfer property from one person to another, but it has recently been used by scammers.
Dada had no idea this had happened until an eviction notice showed up on her door.
“I went to the county assessor’s website, believe it or not, it had that guy’s name as the owner,” he revealed.
Top tips to avoid bank scams
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important that you know how to identify them:
- Be skeptical of online businesses that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers often use tactics to make you panic so that you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are asked to take immediate action and check who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you’ve only spoken to online or on the phone, as this is likely a romantic scam.
- Unless you know 100% who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at ATMs and always be careful when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click on links that indicate you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
The former owner claimed that his signature was forged, but this was not enough proof to resolve the issue.
The Clerk’s Office Chief of Staff, Jason Nelson, explained that there isn’t much they can do to help.
“We are not document examiners,” Nelson said.
“We’re not trying to do that and the statute doesn’t allow us to do that.”
To avoid this problem in the future, Nelson clarified that they have tried to put up more barriers to prevent incidents like this from occurring.
However, he clarified that nothing is infallible.
“At the end of the day, if you have a smart enough criminal, he will probably get away with it for a while,” Nelson said.
This story originally appeared on The-sun.com read the full story
