LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – 2023 was a tough financial year for some people in Boulder City who lost a lot of money to scammers.
The Boulder City Police Department recently posted a scam warning on Facebook and FOX5 followed up to see how many people lost money, how they lost it and how much they lost.
The Boulder City Police Department says that in 2023, 26 people were scammed out of $371,630. The department says that number was $91,025 in 2022.
FOX5 asked about the top scams people fell for.
“Phishing emails and phone calls. The scammers pose as family members, banks, legitimate companies, etc. They will then trick the victim into sending them money. Payment is usually requested through Bitcoin, gift cards, or wire transfers. Citizens should always be suspicious of any entity requesting payment through these mediums,” said police.
The Boulder City Police Department also said 98% of the total loss in 2023 came from victims 60 and over.
“We encourage all our citizens to contact us anytime they expect they are being scammed. We receive daily calls from potential victims who we are able to educate, thereby prevent them from becoming victims at all. BCPD also works with the FBI, who investigates these scams, due to most of them originating out of state or overseas. If BCPD can identify a suspect, we follow all possible investigative leads. BCPD detectives have done presentations at the senior center and at local senior homes in hope to educate potential victims,” said the department.
Last spring, FOX5 reported on an elderly woman who was scammed out of $40,000 in a romance scam that started as a Facebook friend request. The scammer, who posed as an orthopedic surgeon, told the woman he had a box of gold worth a million dollars but needed money to transport it into the U.S. He asked the Boulder City woman for more than $40,000, but she didn’t know how to send the money.
“And he said buy a book and just put the money in between the pages,” said the woman. And that’s what she did.
The woman’s daughter told FOX5 the department was helpful in recouping another $8,250 the woman sent. The daughter tells FOX5 the scammer was trying to get another $100,000 from her mom, but it was never sent after the daughter and a bank intervened.
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