How scammers are costing some North Texans everything: Old tricks, new tactics
NORTH TEXAS – Every week, Euless police detective John Haecker hears a new version of the lies people tell to steal from strangers. In one recent case, a 72-year-old woman fell for a romance scam on Facebook. After several months of communicating with a man she thought was a petroleum engineer, the person claimed to have been involved in a car crash overseas.
"They weren't taking his insurance and he needed money," said Haecker. "So she ended up selling her house and sending him $250,000 worth of bitcoin."
That was a long con, but Haecker says in many bitcoin scams, it's a race against the clock.
"Someone will contact them and say, 'Hey, we're with your bank and there's some problems with your account,'" said Haecker.
According to Haecker, the scammer convinces the victim to withdraw their money and convert it into bitcoin to "secure" it. That's how it happened in White Settlement this summer. Police were called to a convenience store where an elderly woman was putting large sums of cash into the bitcoin ATM. She told the officer she was in danger and on the phone with Chase Bank. The officer spoke to the person on the phone and quickly determined it was a scam, but the 84-year-old woman had already put nearly $24,000 in cash into the machine.
"We have so much elder fraud going on right now," said Haecker.
Experts say the 60+ population is attractive to fraudsters because while they often have financial stability, many are less experienced with technology. According to the FBI, elder fraud increased 14% in 2023, with more than 7,000 Texans filing complaints and a total combined loss of $278 million.
"You can't really trust phone calls, you can't trust emails, you really have to verify this stuff in person," said Haecker.
That means talking face-to-face with real people. He suggests getting a second opinion before making any move.
"If you run this stuff by someone, as you talk about it and speak it out, you're going to start to get more and more suspicious," said Haecker, "because it's not going to make sense."
With reports on the rise, Haecker says it's more important than ever to have open lines of communication with parents and grandparents.
"You just need to sit down and be honest with them," he said. "Say, 'I know you're independent but I don't want you to lose your money. Here are the things that are happening to other people your age right now.'"
It's a practice he preaches with his own family.
"I have my parents call me when they get something they don't know," he said. "And they get two or three words out and I'm like, scam!"