A 93-year-old Lawrenceville woman was bilked out of almost $8,000 by a con artist working from overseas, her daughter told Planet Princeton yesterday.
The woman received a call telling her she has won a sweepstakes. To claim the prize, she was told to go to Rite Aid and put money on a pre-paid Green Dot credit card. The woman was called several times after purchasing the first card and told to purchase additional cards.
The daughter has contacted the Lawrence Police about the scam. Several similar calls and incidents have been reported in the Mercer County area lately and the scams often target the elderly.
A Ewing woman recently received a call telling her she has won a lottery prize in a contest sponsored by Bill Gates and Donald Trump. To claim the prize, she was told to go to Rite Aid and there put $200 into a pre-paid Green Dot credit card. Not fooled, the woman instead called police.
Another Lawrence woman was recently tricked out of $1,675 by a con artist working from overseas. Earlier this month a woman told police she had received a phone call from a man who advised her that she had won a $50,000 prize but that, in order to collect the jackpot, she first needed to send a payment of $475 to an address in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. After the woman wired the money to Dubai via Western Union, she received additional calls from the same man, who told her that an additional wire transfers were needed.