BINGHAM (AP) – Police are sounding warnings that con men and Internet swindlers are targeting people in small, rural communities across Maine.
In Pittsfield, police Sgt. Timothy Roussin said he is investigating four alleged scams in just the past two weeks.
In one case, an elderly Pittsfield woman was bilked out of $25,000 of checks that she willingly wrote to a man who befriended her and convinced her to loan him the money.
In another case, a disabled Pittsfield man was cheated out of nearly $5,000 after a different man befriended him, moved into his home, stole a check and forged it, Roussin said.
“Con men aren’t just on television,” Roussin said. “They are right here in our neighborhoods.”
Roussin also is investigating two alleged Internet scams. One woman was told she had won a large portion of a $1.8 million lottery prize out of Great Britain, while another victim was told she had inherited $8,000 from somebody in Florida.
The women lost several thousand dollars between them that they sent to collect their money, but the money orders and checks they received in return were bogus. Roussin said the FBI is assisting with the multistate investigation.
In eastern Maine, Baileyville Police Chief Phil Harriman said he knows of at least two people in his town, which has fewer than 1,700 residents, who have been bilked out of money through Internet scams.
“Somehow if it’s through chatting on the Internet or spam mail, they contact these people and offer them a deal that is too good to refuse,” Harriman said. “The material is being purchased with stolen credit cards or stolen credit card numbers.”
Even law enforcement officers have found themselves targeted.
Somerset County Sheriff Barry DeLong was approached at his home in Bingham a few days ago by two young men who drove up in a battered pickup truck with a freezer in the back, claiming to be selling frozen meat.
When DeLong told the men his freezer was already full, they tried to enter his home – saying they were going to check out his freezer for themselves. And when DeLong told them to leave, they tried to intimidate him by saying they were going to call the police.
“You just made your call,” DeLong told them.
The two men who ran into DeLong are being closely watched by several law enforcement agencies.
Police say that people living in rural areas and the elderly, who tend to be trusting and are often isolated, are easy targets.
“I believe that this is the most underreported crime there is,” DeLong said. “For every one case that is investigated, I’ll bet 50 go unreported.”
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