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David
N. Kirkman
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North Carolina Division of Aging and Adult Services |
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To NC Senior Consumer Fraud Task Force Members ******Alert #259****** Sgt. Walter Bowling of the Financial Crimes Division, Charlotte Mecklenburg Police Department, shares with us the following description of a Pigeon Drop scam that two men ran on a shopper at Cotswold Mall in Charlotte last Thursday. (Pigeon Drop is an old con in which a mark or “pigeon” is persuaded to deposit a large sum of money in order to secure the rights to share in an even larger sum of money that the scammers claim to have discovered.) Sgt. Bowling points out that the scam happened very quickly and that the banks and the pharmacy mentioned below were located at the Mall itself and not off-site: The victim advised that at roughly 1400 hours on 1/6/2011 she was walking through the parking lot of the Rite-Aid at 334 S. Sharon Amity Rd. when a man nearby bent over to pick up a leather pouch and asked if it was hers. She replied that it wasn’t and the man made small talk for a few moments before another man talking on a cell phone walked by. The first man asked the second if the pouch was his. The second man replied that it was not and asked the first to open it. When the pouch was opened the victim observed a large wad of cash in same. Suspect #1 advised he worked at the SunTrust bank at Cotswold and took the money to be verified. He returned fifteen minutes later and replied it was real. He also had a sheet of paper that had the bank manager's name and a bunch of serial numbers on it. He advised he needed ten thousand dollars as a deposit from the victim and he would take it into the bank and return shortly with it and give the victim a third of the found money. Suspect #1 returned to the bank while suspect #2 drove with the victim first to Bank of America where she withdrew $5000 then to 5th 3rd bank where she withdrew another $5000. She then drove back to SunTrust where suspect #2 took the money inside and told her to wait for them back over at the Rite-Aid. The suspects never returned. ******End of Alert****** Date: January 10, 2011 David N. Kirkman
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