Elderly Waterville Couple Scammed Out of All Their Money
According to the Kennebec Journal, the couple was spotted sitting and waiting at Waterville's Robert LaFleur airport for a flight to come in. When airport manager, Randy Marshall, approached the couple to let them know no more flights were slated to come in, they told him they were waiting for a plane carrying millions of dollars to be landing soon.
The couple had received calls from scammers letting them know that they had won a cash prize worth millions in cash. However, in order to secure the prize and have the cash flown to them they needed to prepay the taxes on it. They were told the only way to prepay the taxes were by using gift cards, and lots of them.
The couple did just that. They purchased as many as they could with what they had for money and then proceeded to give the scammers the numbers on all the gift cards. After that they were advised of a date and time that the aircraft would be landing in Waterville with their millions in cash.
Airport Manager, Randy Marshall, even called down to the Portland Jetport to help assure the couple that no such plane was scheduled to land in Maine. Marshall then called the Waterville Police Department. Office Linda Smedberg was the responding officer and went above and beyond to help the couple cancel what remaining gift cards they could. The story indicated they were able to cancel enough to cover two months of their bills and mortgage.
Waterville Police Deputy Chief, William Bonney, reminds Mainers that no legitimate business would request payments in gift cards or iTunes cards. Additionally he said that no business would threaten to show up at your door and arrest you.
Officer Smedburg told the KJ,
“We get a lot of reports of scam. If you have any doubts or questions, call us. Call the police department, we can usually tell pretty easily. We’d rather you come to us to clarify than become a victim.”
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