An Augusta woman said she was duped into withdrawing $8,000 by two men who claimed they wanted to help a charity but then took her money, according to a Richmond County Sheriff’s Office report.
The woman said she was at the Bi-Lo at 1531 Gordon Highway about 1:45 p.m. Thursday when she was approached by a man who told her he was from Africa and visiting the U.S. because his brother had died in a plane crash. He then told her he had received $300,000 from a settlement from the airline but could not take it back to Africa because he might be killed for having so much money. The man added he would like to give the money to charity.
The man then approached a second man and told him the same story, according to an incident report. The person said he would like to help but had no transportation.
The woman took both men to a Bank of America branch on Gordon Highway. The second man said he withdrew $10,000, and the woman withdrew $8,000 afterward, the report stated.
The men combined their money, placed it in a scarf and prayed over it. They proceeded to do the same thing with the woman’s money, according to the report.
The two men then left on foot while parked by the Walmart at 3209 Deans Bridge Road. The woman said when she opened the scarf it contained only newspaper cut into the shape of money.
Police are examining video surveillance of the checkout aisles at the grocery store.
The Augusta Chronicle ©2010 Morris Communications, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
How dumb and gullible can a person be?
sad but so! it seems people work harder not to work than to just make an honest living!
Well we know she did not withdraw that much from an ATM. Why didn't the teller think something was amiss and call the cops?
hope they dont embarrass her by putting her name in the paper
JohnQPublic, if the lady went in alone, why would the teller have any reason to be suspicious? I don't think tellers are really allowed to ask "What are you going to do with all this money you're taking out of your account today?". If the lady had proper ID, had the money in her account, and did not seem to be under some kind of duress, it's really none of the teller's business what she does with her money, is it? It's not like she withdrew the money against her will or anything, so she should have to take some personal responsibility for being very, very gullible.
Now that I've read this story more carefully, either the writer has left out some important details, or this whole things makes absolutely no sense. The African man had $300K that he wants to give to charity. Why would the woman then go to the bank and withdraw $8K of her own money? That just doesn't add up at all. Oh, and wasn't there a story a few weeks ago about some woman being approached by two women in a parking lot in Augusta with some similar scam? They ended up stealing $8K from her as well. Where are these dummies getting all this money in the first place??
People are so dang dumb!!!! Are these people living in so much isolation they do not know about these things? Seems more likely rather than charity, she was promised a profit which she didn't mention, usually that " too good to be true" greed is what nails these suckers. This story makes no sense. What was she withdrawing the 8k for? did she deposit the bad check or what? how did her money play a role in it? I hope they catch these p.o.s's doing this around town, they should be shot! Fricken losers.
Just say no folks. Dont let them talk you into anything. Keep walking while they are talking. Feel sorry for no one. If you have eight thousand dollars chillin in the bank then you need to not let no one talk you into something as crazy as this.
Greed blinds people.
This is an old scam and the only reason it works is because of greed. They promise to give you a large sum of the money if you will give them a "small" amount of your money. If the woman had not thought she could have taken advantage of the men she would not be in that position. She saw dollar signs and thought she could get over on someone else and it bit her in the butt as this scam always does. The underlining fact in all these scams of this type is that you are promised something for nothing or very little. Well life doesn't work that way. If everyone would get up and go to work everyday instead of trying to get over on someone, they would be better off. As far as posting her name, I think the AC should. Then everyone who knows her will know how dumb she is. If you get caught in this scam all I can say is you get what you deserve. Stupid is as stupid does.
This sounds so suspicious, I couldn't possibly feel sorry for the woman. If in fact it is true, she has no one to blame but herself for being so stupid. Why did she need to withdraw $8,000? I think she is lying, too.
I didn't know Allen Chiles was from Africa.
MADMAX( Insert usual description of gullible victim)? Unless you have been locked in a closet for the last 2 decades, how in the world have you not heard of this scam?
LOL,,the old nigerian scam....but who falls for this very well known ruse???
A possibility is that many now suffer from a lower mental ability due to the use of cholesterol medicine.
No soldout it is the Xanax.
Oh, right, it was the old "cholesterol medicine" scam.
I really hate to say this but soldout out is correct about some cholesterol medication having complicated side effects. My elederly mother was becoming forgetful and falling a lot. We thought it was just the onset of "old timers" or that she was just getting older. They changed her medication and she hasn't feel once since the change and her memory is perfectly fine now. This probably wasn't this woman's excuse but the part ab out the chloesterol medication is.
Comments Justass???? Well????? Don't you have something "snappy" to say??
That scam is as old as dirt in the north! She was ''promised'' a certain amount of money, if she ''showed good faith''by putting up a certain amount of money!! All she could see was trippling her money!!! Greed gets you no where!!!
Come on people. How could you let someone do that to you. Poor people! I am sure they worked hard for that money. I hope these guys get caught and pay for what they have done!
I wish someone would try that on me and meet me at the bank while I call the police on the way.
what fools these mortals be.....
Research by an Iowa State University scientist suggests that cholesterol-reducing drugs known as statins may lessen brain function. Yeon-Kyun Shin, a biophysics professor in the department of biochemistry, biophysics and molecular biology, says the results of his study show that drugs that inhibit the liver from making cholesterol may also keep the brain from making cholesterol, which is vital to efficient brain function.
"If you deprive cholesterol from the brain, then you directly affect the machinery that triggers the release of neurotransmitters," said Shin. "Neurotransmitters affect the data-processing and memory functions. In other words -- how smart you are and how well you remember things."
Shin's findings will be published in this month's edition of the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Stupid.
?????
If she was smart enough to save earned money then she should have been smart enough not to hand it over to strangers. Obviously she didn't work for this money herself.
All medications have side effects. How absurd to think this was because the woman, whose age and health condition was not given, was taking high-cholesterol medication. What was the reason this type of crime happened before they invented high cholesterol medication? Don't you get tired of the never-ending commercial for a quack to drum up business for her worthless treatments?
TakeAStand is correct. The people were promised a big payday by the scam artist. That is why they foolishly followed his suggestions.
Regardless if she was promised something or not, she deserved to lose that money. Ignorance, not greed imo.
Did she honestly think they were going to give her money? And even if it was *for charity*, she is double stupid because she gave the cash, HELLO!! Tax deduction... She deserved as good as she got..
They won't print her name, they feel she's suffered from dumb disease enough, she'd be ridiculed for life on this one.