OKEECHOBEE — Scams are an ever-present threat in today’s world, and the public is warned to keep an eye out for a few.
Deputy Timothy Miller of the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office (OCSO) indicated in a report that on June 14 at 11:20 a.m., he met with a woman who had been contacted by a fictitious Facebook account.
According to the woman, the Facebook account, agentcarmonthomas992, asked her to send them money. They reportedly promised to send her $80,000 in return. She knew it was a scam and did not send them any money, but she feared that someone else could fall for the scam. She wanted to make sure she brought it to the law enforcement’s attention, stated the report.
The woman also provided a phone number, 754-444-3223, which she was given through the Facebook account.
In another report filed by Deputy Gerardo Vasquez of the OCSO, he referred to a meeting with a woman in the jail lobby on June 14 at 3:43 p.m.
The woman he spoke with indicated that she had received a call from Comcast, and she was advised that she owed them $600 and that she needed to pay them. She told the representative that she had not opened an account in any other state, so she does not owe the money, continued the report.
She also told the representative that she has been living in Florida since 2010, and the only other state she has lived in was New York. When speaking to Deputy Vasquez, the woman could not recall in what state the representative had told her the account had been opened, but she knew that it was not New York. She stated that she was unsure how someone could have gotten her identity.
Lastly, Deputy Greg Mullen indicated in a report that on June 14 at 5:12 p.m., he spoke to yet another woman who was involved in an unrelated scam.
The woman stated that she had received a check in the amount of $3,950 in the mail, and included were instructions from Associated Bank. The check reportedly came from a Dave Sharman at 18 Locust Drive, Northfield, NJ 08225. The instructions given to the woman were from an unknown Secret Shopper organization, the report continued.
The instructions were as follows: Cash the check into her bank account and spend $50 at Walmart, observing how the staff acted, and send Maria Young and Angel Ballarde $1,700 each through Money Gram. After all of that was completed, she would allegedly receive a $100 deduction for Money Gram charges and transport.
The letter stated that Maria and Angel both live in Cyprus, Larnaca, Europe.
The woman did not cash the check, stated the report.