SANTA PAULA : Con Artists Swindle 3 Senior Citizens
Shysters peddling supposedly hot investment opportunities have swindled at least three Santa Paula senior citizens out of thousands of dollars in recent weeks, police said Monday.
The elderly victims reported being approached by someone on the street asking for directions, Santa Paula Police Sgt. Gary Marshall said.
The con artist then offered to include the victims in a quick-return investment scheme.
The victims were solicited in both Spanish and English, he said.
“None of the cases have been workable because of the poor description of the suspects,” Marshall said. “We get cases like this every six months to a year, and all of a sudden we have a recurrence of them.”
In one case, the swindler grabbed about $1,000 cash out of the victim’s hand, Marshall said, and, in another case, exchanged an envelope stuffed with cut-up newspaper for a similar amount of money.
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