(MOBILE, Ala) -
An elderly member of the Army Aviation Federal Credit Union in Mobile thought he was helping honest people, but he was really the target of a scam.The elderly victim came into his credit union branch and told a teller that he wanted to take $9,000 in cash out of his account.
"He said that someone approached him coming out of the tax office," the bank tell told LOCAL 15 News. She did not want to be identified. "They had gotten money from a death in the family."
Police say the suspect claimed he had $300,000, but he did not want to put the money in American banks because he didn't trust the banks to give it back.
Police say another man, who claimed not to know the first suspect, came up and said he would take some of his own money out of a bank to show banks were safe. The elderly victim volunteered to do the same.
When the victim told the bank teller, she did not think the story made sense. "I got my manager and told her the situation." She says she didn't want to give the victim the cash, because she believed the two strangers would steal it.
Cindy Hicks, the credit union branch manager, called the police. "He still believes to this day that he was going to do a good thing. He was supposed to show them his money over at McAlister's."
Police say the victim went over to McAlister's but with only a few hundred dollars, not $9,000. The men were gone.
According to police, it's a classic example of a "pigeon drop" scam.
"They put on a very believable show," Ofc. Christopher Levy, with the Mobile Police Department, says. "They gain the trust of these people."
Levy says "pigeon drop" scammers often target the elderly.
