LAND O' LAKES, Fla. — A Land O’ Lakes widow received a call saying she won millions in the lottery, even though she never even played.
The ABC Action News I-team talked to her about how a scammer convinced her to send thousands of dollars in cash to another state and how we’ve learned from federal authorities that this type of crime is growing rapidly.
Stranger promised $8 million prize
“They took advantage of somebody that was gullible,” said the victim.
Eighty-two-year-old Mary doesn’t want us to show her face or use her full name because she’s still afraid of the scammer who ruined her life.
It started with a “too good to be true” call from a man who introduced himself as “Michael Baxter” and said he represented Mega Millions.
“They told me they were coming to my home to present me with the check,” Mary said.
She said he told her she won $8 million.
Mary said the man then asked her for her credit card information.
“They told me they were going to pay off both Sam’s Club and Truist, and they did. They paid them both off,” she said.
Mary got confirmation from banks that payments had been made to her credit card accounts.
But it turns out those deposits were written with checks that weren’t good.
“About 10 or 12 days later, they reversed the payments,” Mary said.
Payments sent to “Michael Baxter” in Indianapolis
But in the meantime, the man told Mary he was going to send a $12,000 payment to her card, but she first had to take out $6,000 cash advance to cover the taxes.
She took $6,000, put it into an envelope and took it to a UPS store in Land O’ Lakes.
She then shipped the package to Michael Baxter at a residential address in Indianapolis.
When asked if she thought that made sense, Mary replied, “No, because my bank didn’t question me.”
UPS receipts show Mary sent multiple shipments of cash to recipients at the same address.
One shipment was sent to a woman named “Ella."
“That he said was the bookkeeper,” she said.
We contacted investigative reporter Kara Kenney at our sister station in Indianapolis.
She went to the address where Mary sent the money and discovered an 85-year-old woman named Ella lived there.
Ella said she did not know Michael Baxter and had not received any packages.
We also found a news account online about a Mega Millions lottery scheme in Indianapolis in 2015 involving a suspect who used the name Michael Baxter.
“Michael” calls us back
There are multiple people named Michael Baxter in Indianapolis, but none have the same phone number or address given to Mary.
One number had a Pennsylvania area code.
We called it and left a message.
A man who identified himself as Michael later called me back.
“What do you call me for?” the man asked in broken English.
We asked him what happened to Mary’s money.
“I don’t know Mary,” he responded.
He called back minutes later, saying he wanted to talk to Mary.
Another number Mary said he used to call her was from outside the United States.
Reported elder fraud increases 11%
The FBI says elder fraud is on the rise.
“With any kind of fraud, what the fraudsters want to do is to get folks to not think clearly and send money immediately,” said FBI Special Agent Keith Givens.
In 2023, the bureau received 101,000 elder fraud complaints involving losses of 3.4 billion dollars.
That’s an 11-percent increase over 2022.
Mary contacted Truist and Synchrony Bank, which issued her Sam's Club card.
Neither would return her money.
She’s also contacted the Florida Attorney General’s Office and law enforcement in Pasco County and Indianapolis.
So far, no one has been charged.
“I know I'll never see a dime of it. My head’s not in the clouds that way, you know,” Mary said.
Mary now owes nearly $40,000 from the cash advances and charges.
She once had an 800-credit score, but now can barely pay her bills and is having to continue working.
“I'd like to get to the bottom of this to where I can get my credit rating restored,” Mary said.
She also is speaking out to try to keep the same thing from happening to someone else.
