PALM COAST, Fla. – A con artist couple managed to swindle a 75 year old woman out of $8,000 Saturday morning, according to the Flagler County Sheriff's Office.
A release issued today said the Palm Coast woman was in a Walmart Park lot on Cypress Point Parkway sitting in her car when a woman approached.
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The woman was holding a wrapped box in her hand and knocked on the victim's window to ask if it belonged to her. The woman also asked a man who was walking by if the box belonged to him. He turned out to be the scammer's partner.
The two opened the box and their appeared to be a stack of $100 and $1000 bills inside. The victim suggested that they contact law enforcement because the money could be counterfeit. The female suspect suggested that they take the cash to a grocery store where she worked because they would be able to tell if it were fake or not.
The victim then drove to the grocery store where she met the man and woman. The woman took the money inside and said she would have the manager check to see if it was counterfeit. When she came out she confirmed that the manager thought it was real money but the manager wanted to speak with everyone individually.
Somewhere in the timeframe, the victim said she drove to two separate bank locations to withdraw funds from her own accounts with the female scammer.
The victim went inside the grocery store to meet with the manager, but after 15 minutes when no one had come out to greet her she went back outside to find that the woman and the man and all the money including her $8000 from savings were gone.
The sheriff's office was not clear about how the scammer's convinced the woman to hand over her own funds in the scheme. A spokeswoman said that information was not part of the report, in an email Monday.
"This is not a new scam. There is nothing unusual about this scam, but it is disturbing that these con artists have found their way into Flagler County. They have no qualms about taking advantage of the elderly," said Sheriff Donald W. Fleming.
The sheriff also said they would love to identify these people. They issued a surveillance photo of the man involved in the scheme but did not have any details on a description of his female accomplice.
Anyone who may have information on the scammers is asked to contact the Sheriff's Office at (386) 313-4911.