Sacramento senior scammed out of $28,000 in brazen elder fraud scheme

By James Taylor

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    SACRAMENTO (KOVR) — A senior citizen is speaking out after falling for an elder abuse scam that cost her thousands of dollars.

This fraud wasn’t just over the internet. Rhane Thomas, 74, said one of the two thieves came right to her home to collect the cash.

Now, she’s lost more than $28,000 in the scam.

“That money was my full nest egg, that was my life savings,” Thomas said.

Thomas said the scammer sounded convincing and trustworthy when he reached out to her through email and WhatsApp private messages saying he worked for PayPal and that she was a victim of fraud.

“I have used PayPal for a number of years,” she said. “I’ve always been able to trust them.”:

She said the man used scare tactics to convince her to go to two different banks and withdraw cash.

“He terrified me,” Thomas said. “He made me afraid that my information was being used for money laundering and illegal purposes.”

Thomas said she was instructed to send him pictures of the cash and receipts and to wrap the money in a cardboard box.

A second man, who was supposed to be a Social Security financial officer, then came to her house that same day to pick up the package in a white Toyota. They used Thomas’ favorite color, purple, as a password.

“He gave the password and I handed him the box,” she said.

Thomas is a former bank teller but fell for it. She now knows it was all an elaborate ruse to take her money.

“I don’t want other people to fall into traps like this,” she said.

Thomas filed a police report, but the Sacramento County grand jury says these types of crimes are often overlooked and only a small percentage are prosecuted.

The grand jury is recommending that local law enforcement hire specialized financial abuse detectives by the end of the year, which is something that Thomas agrees with.

“Detectives would be good because it’s going to take research,” she said.

She has some strong words for the men who stole her money: “What you’re doing is wicked and evil.”

So far, the City of Sacramento has not responded to the grand jury recommendations. The sheriff’s department says they used to have 12 detectives assigned to elder abuse crimes, but now, because of budget cuts, there are only eight who are also responsible for investigating other types of criminal cases.

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