Elderly Women Scammed out of Thousands
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HENDERSON COUNTY, Tenn.- The Henderson County Sheriff’s Department is investigating an elaborate scam they say conned two elderly women out of more than $30,000. “Two elderly women have lost $30,000 of their own money. It is probably the worst I have ever seen in this area,” said Capt. Tracey Grisham, Henderson County Sheriff’s Dept. Deputies said the scam conned the elderly women for more than a year with big dreams that were really broken promises. Scam victim Geneva Gaskin said the con started with phone call that said she was the lucky winner of a sweepstakes. “He said I had won $2 million and a brand new Mercedes-Benz and 2 years insurance paid on the car and 2 years of gas,”said Gaskin. Gaskin said she was then asked to send money, pay fees to free-up the prizes and cash whats known as “comm checks” at area truck stops. “I paid him every time he asked for something because he gave me a good excuse to have it,” said Gaskin. Gaskin said her sister even paid more than $8,000 out of her savings in hopes of reaping the prize benefits. “Just bad you can’t hardly believe people would do something like that,” said scam victim, Pearl Rink. “That’s your life’s work and it’s gone and were up in age where we can’t start over.” Deputies said the scam was common but in this case the details were well thought out, down to the last penny. At least 12 comm checks were validated and cashed, each victim was given an authorization number and express code that turned out to be real through the sheriff’s department’s investigation. “The codes were valid enough to get It cashed but it was more like a forgery it was not authorized but it was a real code,” said Grisham. Grisham said the money collected from the comm checks was then used to purchase green dot cards and pre-paid credit cards. “It’s quite a hurt financially and mentally, too. I was raised to believe and trust people and finding out you can’t hardly trust anybody anymore,” said Gaskin. Grisham said the scammers hacked into a company called Ryder Corporate Security and were using their real authorization codes to complete their crime. If you think you may have been victimized by this scam or know anything about this case call the Henderson County Sheriff’s Department at (731) 968-7777.
