Scam artists are on the prowl

Published 9:00 pm Friday, May 12, 2006

EVERETT – The woman is a fast-talking storyteller who knows what buttons to push.

A Marysville grandma and an Arlington man say her elaborate story reeled them in, played on their compassion and ultimately left them feeling stupid.

“I believe I’m a very compassionate person, maybe a little gullible, and a little greed was involved. Now, I just feel like a dope,” said Betty, 65.

The Herald is not using the victims’ last names to protect their identities.

The woman who bilked Betty out of $2,000 last week is likely the same woman who took $10,000 from William, a 79-year-old Arlington grandfather, police warned Friday.

Police say Betty and William aren’t the only ones who have fallen prey to a group of scam artists that tend to surface as the weather turns warmer and more people are outside.

The scams vary slightly, but the goal is the same: part people from their money.

“It’s a flim-flam. People get rattled. Their trust is rattled and they empty their bank accounts and are taken for everything they’ve got,” Everett police Sgt. Boyd Bryant said.

Betty was leaving Costco in south Everett on May 4 when the suspect first approached her. The woman claimed she was from Sierra Leone. She inherited money from an uncle and wanted to donate some to a local church.

She needed someone to dole it out on her behalf over the next three years and she needed to find someone fast.

The woman flashed Betty what appeared to be a wad of cash and showed her some official-looking paperwork.

A second suspect turned up and volunteered to help hand out the money. Both were promised a small commission.

To prove that the woman could trust them, Betty and the man were asked to take money from their bank accounts and give it to the woman to hold for a short time.

Betty eventually handed over $2,000 to the woman and the man. She never saw her money or the scammers again.

“They were excellent actors. They were likable. They were personable,” Betty said.

Enough so that she ignored her instincts and the doubts nibbling at her.

“If there’s something telling you this isn’t right, it’s time to walk away,” Everett police Sgt. Gary Woodburn said.

William was taken by a similar scam in March in south Everett, likely by the same woman or group of scam artists. He said the idea of helping out a charity overrode his growing suspicions about the woman’s story.

“I’m fairly well-educated. Why in the world did I do something like that? I think the story threw me. They had an answer for everything,” William said.

The scams are generally well-planned and often executed by a group of people, police said. The scammers often are assertive. They act rushed to find someone to help them and generally offer money for very little work.

“If something seems too good to be true, it is,’ Bryant said.

The crooks generally pick people who are elderly and tender-hearted, he said.

Police believe a number of these crimes go unreported because the victims are too embarrassed to step forward.

“I felt taken and violated and lied to,” Betty said. “You just feel so inadequate.”

Reporter Diana Hefley: 425-339-3463 or hefley@ heraldnet.com.