US says Mexican drug cartel was so bold in timeshare fraud that some operators posed as US officials

MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. authorities say a Mexican drug cartel was so bold in operating frauds targeting elderly Americans that the gang’s operators posed as U.S. Treasury Department officials. The revelation was made Thursday by the department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC. The agency has been chasing fraudsters using call centers controlled by the Jalisco drug cartel to offer to buy Americans’ timeshare properties. They have scammed at least 600 Americans out of about $40 million. But they also began contacting people while claiming to be employees of OFAC itself and offering to free up funds purportedly frozen by the U.S. agency.