Falmouth officer prevents elderly man from falling further victim to email scam

Local news

The man had already sent $600 to the scammer, but police intervened before he could send another $9,999.99.

A Falmouth police officer intervened when he saw an elderly man fall victim to a phone scammer pressuring the man to send him money on Sept. 19, police said.

At 4:21 p.m., Officer Sean Lowe entered Cumberland Farms located at 400 East Falmouth Highway to get a drink when he saw the elderly man putting money into the store’s bitcoin machine, according to a police report.

“As I observed the man, an employee approached me and stated that he believed the gentleman was the victim of a scam,” Lowe wrote in the report. “I continued to observe and saw that the man had a large stack of cash and was on the phone.”

Lowe wrote that the man told him he was instructed to put money in the machine because of an error at his bank.

“His phone was on speakerphone and I heard a male voice on the other end that had a foreign accent,” Lowe wrote.

Lowe said he then informed the man that he may have been scammed.

Detectives later determined the man was the victim of an email scam. The scammer convinced the man to put $600 into the bitcoin machine, but police intervened before he could send another $9,999.99.

“With blockchain transactions, it’s very difficult for law enforcement to trace that money and get that money back,” Lt. Ryan Hergt told Boston.com.

But Hergt said detectives are trying to identify the suspect responsible for the scam.

Hergt advised the public to be “suspicious of any unsolicited calls or emails” and to contact the police or a trusted family member to determine the legitimacy of the communication.

“We don’t often get to intervene,” Hergt said. “So this was a great event.”