Scammers Take $86,000 Life Savings from 70 Year Old, Like Taking Candy From a Baby

Reported by Trey Paul submitted by Malone

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - There are more questions than answers in the case of two women accused of scamming a 70-year-old Richland County woman out of her life savings.

If you recognize either of the suspects, you might want to give the Richland County Sheriff's department a call.

"They deserve to be in jail, there's no other place for them but in jail," said Lt. Chris Cowan of the RCSD.

That's because deputies think they swindled $86,000 from a 70-year-old woman, and right now they don't know where they are.

"It's a large amount of money. $86,000 is a large amount of money and I can imagine this is probably her life's savings we're talking about," Cowan told WIS News 10.

It all started back in January. Investigators are not sure how, but they say the first woman stole the 70-year-old's identity and stole $86,000 of her money. They say she then opened up a bank account using the 70-year-old's name, and deposited about $70,000. The suspect then wrote another woman a check for the rest of the money. Deputies believe the second suspect then cashed that check using a fake id.

"It's a sad situation when you have an elderly woman who's got her life savings and she's going to use that to live out her golden years and now some someone has come in and taken it from her," says Cowan.
As for leads, deputies says the pictures are about it. It's not a lot of closure for the 70-year old who got scammed.

"Not only is she in fear because someone stole her identity, she's probably in fear of wondering what am I gonna do next," Cowan said. There are a lot of unanswered questions, but the sheriff's department says they won't stop looking until they find the answers.

"We're hoping we can pick up the phone and say hey we've got some closure for you, we've got these two individuals arrested," said Cowan.

Anyone with information on the identity of the suspects is asked to call Crimestoppers at 888-559-TIPS or go to http://www.midlandscrimestoppers.com/