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Rogers transfers nearly $48,000, reports scam Wednesday, Jul 9, 2008 By Melissa Sherman The Morning News ROGERS - A 70-year-old Rogers woman told police on Monday she was the victim of a telephone scam. It all started when she was notified on June 11 that she won $750,000 with the Australian International Sweepstakes. The Morning News agreed to protect Ozella's identity and use only her first name. "There are a lot of sweepstakes being won," Ozella said. "I just thought I was a winner." But there is no such sweepstakes. Instead, Ozella was scammed by someone or a group of people out of nearly $48,000, which she sent to an address in Montego Bay, Jamaica, over the course of nearly a month to help pay for the deposit of her winnings. She was later informed the $750,000 was increased to $2.5 million. Now Ozella wants people to know how that phone call changed her life, so she can help others prevent it from happening to them. After a month of speaking with a group of people who requested money in the form of $3,000 to $5,000 transfers from different Western Union stations in Northwest Arkansas to Jamaica, it took another phone call to change everything. On Monday, Ozella received a phone call from a man who suddenly threatened her, demanding she send him $7,900 because the bank in Jamaica was holding the $2.5 million until she paid up, Ozella said. "He became angry," she said. He told her he would send the police over to her home to escort her to the bank to withdraw the money. At that point, she finally hung up the phone. "They seemed so protective of me" in the beginning, she said "That made me feel comfortable." "I kept telling them I felt this was a scam," she added. But an unidentified person would get on the phone and inform her that it wasn't a scam, she said. After hanging up with the man, her next phone call was to the Rogers Police Department. "The way I got sucked into this was unreal," Ozella said, pausing for a moment. "I'm smarter than that," she added. Ozella visited her bank Monday afternoon and was told that banks never require payment for a check to be deposited, she said. After speaking with the bank and the police, Ozella said she felt "relieved" but still "numb" that night. "I'm going to go on living my life," she said. "This is money. I could have gotten shot or hurt." Ozella said she may never get her money back but "would like to." Rogers detectives can either track the group based on how the victim was contacted - in this case via telephone - or by how the money was exchanged, said Capt. Ron Largent. In situations where money is exchanged out of the country, the police will notify the FBI, Largent said. The group probably operates outside of Northwest Arkansas, said Lt. Mike Johnson. Local scams typically consist of a person offering services, like yardwork or repairing a roof, being paid for the service, then leaving before the job is done, Johnson said. |
