ST. CLAIR TOWNSHIP — The St. Clair Township Police Department (SCPD) is currently working on an investigation with the East Palestine Police Department (EPPD) into an unusual scam in which an elderly resident was conned out of over $13,000.

Officer Matthew Greenlief, SCPD, said the department was contacted May 6 by an elderly female and her daughter, who told the officer that her mother had received a letter on FBI letterhead and contacted by phone from someone claiming to be an investigator from Huntington National Bank.

Greenlief noted that it started with the letter telling her that her bank was under investigation and that an investigator from the bank would be contacting her.

He also said that the letter would probably not appear to be legitimate to a person familiar with scams, but these are targeting the elderly.

The person claiming to be the investigator from Huntington told the elderly female that they needed her to go to the bank and withdraw money so they could get fingerprints off of it. The female said the investigator told her not to tell anyone why she was at the bank withdrawing the money because they were investigating the bank.

The alleged investigator then, according to the female, paid for an alleged Uber to pick her up from her residence and take her to the Huntington Branch in East Palestine to get the money. She then said they wanted more money, so they tried to take her to the Huntington Branch in St. Clair Township where she was unable to get more money that day so they said they would pick her up again the next day.

Greenlief said the woman’s daughter received a notification on her phone regarding the money withdrawn from her mother’s account and was able to step in and stop any more from being withdrawn.

Before the daughter realized what was going on an older woman showed up to the elderly female’s residence and actually took the money. According to Greenlief, the elderly female said she was instructed to walk outside, put the money in the backdoor and don’t speak.

The older woman told the elderly female that her name was Tammy, but Greenlief believes that is an alias, not her actual name.

Right now, all the police have to go on are some videos of the car and a quick side profile of one of the subjects involved.

For the vehicles they are looking at a black SUV that is alleged to be an Uber and a silver SUV that was used to pick up the money from the female at her residence. Greenlief is hopeful if it was an actual Uber they can get information from the company, but he is suspicious of it being an Uber, because they typically operate in larger areas.

Greenlief said once they started investigating it, they discovered the same thing had recently happened in Lisbon, and he spoke with a Lisbon detective to figure out what happened there. The Lisbon Police Department is investigating that incident.

The SCPD is currently working with the EPPD to try to get the license plate number of the car, and they are trying to get information from Uber.

“In this area, it has been the same thing. There has been a lot of this,” Greenlief said. “I don’t know if it’s been across the river, but there have been a lot of scams for the elderly just around this area.”

Greenlief noted that there are multiple agencies currently investigating this, and he believes the scammers messed up somewhere which hopefully will help them with the investigation.

He also said that the suspects managed to park in a way that allowed them to avoid the car being caught on bank cameras.

Greenlief said that in the last couple of weeks he himself has had six or seven scam reports, mostly from elderly residents. He doesn’t know how many calls the other officers have taken. He suspects there are a lot more victims out there that may be too embarrassed to come forward and report it. Some of the victims they are aware of have been conned out of over $100,000 for one and another out of $60,000.

Greenlief noted that out of embarrassment the majority of these scams go unreported, and it is happening to a lot of people. He also said if it happens to you, it definitely needs to be reported because there is always a chance to recover the money, get the people who are doing it or at the very least the officers would know and be able to use the information for further reference in what or how people are committing these scams, so by reporting it, you could be helping others out.

Greenlief advised all residents who have elderly neighbors or relatives to watch what is coming through on their bank accounts and phones and ask questions.

A lot of these are coming through spam email which the elderly are clicking on, and then they can access their computers. He also said there are a lot of them who are calling and saying they are Huntington investigators and warns that Huntington is not going to contact them by phone. If there is an issue, Huntington will contact through the mail or through secure form of communication such as through their official app or website, not through text or a phone call.

“That seems to be the biggest thing, is people don’t know what they should be getting through their phone and what should actually be coming through the mail,” Greenlief said.