It Happened Again! Sheldon Woman Scammed Out Of $16,000

Sheldon, Iowa — A Sheldon woman is out $16,000 after she fell for a recent scam. 

According to Sheldon Police Chief Lyle Bolkema, the victim was chatting with someone on Facebook messenger who she believed was her cousin from California, who informed her that he was in Germany.  The victim told police she was certain it was him, as all of his pictures were her cousin’s pictures.  He informed her that she had won a sweepstakes grant of $90-thousand, and put her in touch with someone else who gave her instructions on how to claim her prize. 

Bolkema says on July 6th, she wired $2-thousand through a local bank to a bank in Chicago, Illinois.  On July 11th, she learned that the people who had her money had been stopped and were being held for having too much money with them so she wired an additional $75-hundred, this time to a bank in Richmond, VA.  On July 12th, she was told by the scammers that the latest transaction hadn’t gone through so she wired an additional $65-hundred to the same VA bank.  She then spoke with her cousin’s mother and learned that he was never in Germany and had not been communicating with her. 

It should be noted that the victim was warned by bank officials from two local banks of the fact that this appeared to be fraudulent and was highly suspicious, but she became upset and defensive when confronted with this information. 

When asked if she had heard the last news release relating to this same scam, she advised that she doesn’t listen to or read the local news stories and was unaware of this information.

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