Woman Targeted In Denting Scam Alerts Police At Bank
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Two men targeted a Chicago woman in a parking lot scam. They cornered her and she was ready to pay -- that is, until she turned the tables on them.
The so-called mark in this case was on her way to this bank with the scam artist in her car and ready to withdraw and give him $500. But when she went inside, bank employees convinced her to call police.
"I was pretty shaken," Laura Evans said.
She said she felt trapped by a man who forced himself into her front seat while another man pretended to fix a dent in her car earlier this month.
"I guess I should have said, 'Get out of my car,' right away like that. People have said that, but I didn't quite think to do that," Evans said.
Evans was yet another victim of a scam called denting. Two men approached her in a River North parking lot, claimed to be from her dealer, offered to fix damage she's convinced they created and then demanded money. Evans said the men left her car damaged and her headed to the bank.
"And I decided I was going to give them money because I wanted them to get out of my car and leave me alone," she said.
The scammer stayed in her car while repeatedly calling Evans' phone. Inside the bank, an employee noticed her distress, asked what was happening and urged her to call 911. Officers flooded the area.
"They said, 'You're in a scam. This is fraud, and it's very common,'" she said.
The man in her car took off after sending a text that reads, "You keep the money I don't need it."
Evans is now left with a police report, a huge repair bill and gratitude for the help she received.
"They saved me, both the Citibank manager and the police really saved me," Evans said.
A police officer told Evans a detective would follow up with her a few days later. She's still waiting for that call.
