A SENIOR citizen has lost thousands of dollars after a group of conmen devised a scheme to trick an elderly homeowner.
In 2021, an 80-year-old woman from Missouri, who was not named during the case, hired Gino Rives to repair her roof believing he was a normal contractor.
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Rives lied about being a licensed professional and told the woman that he could repair her roof, as well as renovate her home.
Rives convinced her to write checks for him and others totaling over $550,000 for her one-bedroom house.
Many of these people didn’t do the work they were paid for, including a man named Austin James, who was said to have aided in the scam.
James collected almost $100,000 from the woman, claiming that he worked on the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, basement, and foundation.
The amount of checks that the victim wrote caused her bank to take notice.
The financial institution decided to call the St. Louis City Building Inspector’s Office, where they concluded that the house received no more than $50,000 worth of renovations.
Rives was arrested in 2023 and pleaded guilty to defrauding multiple elderly victims.
James pleaded guilty as well and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 14.
He could spend up to 15 years in prison and be forced to pay up to a $250,000 fine.
HOME SCAMS
In recent years, scammers have not only been targeting people’s money but their homes as well.
A man named Dada from Oklahoma was stunned when he found out that someone used a quit claim deed to take his home.
A quit claim deed allows people to easily transfer homeownership from one person to another but has recently been utilized by scammers.
Dada had no idea this had taken place until an eviction notice showed up at his front door.
“I went to the county assessor’s website, believe it or not, it had that guy’s name as the owner,” he revealed.
Top tips on avoiding scams from a bank
As scams become more sophisticated with the use of artificial intelligence, it is important you know how to spot a scam:
- Be skeptical of online deals that seem too good to be true, especially on social media.
- Scammers will often use tactics to make you panicked so you make quick decisions – be cautious if you are told to take immediate action and verify who has contacted you.
- Chase Bank warns customers to “never return any unexpected funds without calling Chase first.”
- Never send money to someone you have only spoken to online or by phone as this is likely a romance scam.
- Unless you 100% know who you are talking to, never give someone remote access to your device.
- Never accept help from strangers at an ATM and always be vigilant when making withdrawals.
- Do not send money or click any links indicating that you have won a prize.
Source: Chase.com
The former homeowner claimed that his signature was faked, but that wasn’t enough evidence to get things resolved.
The clerk’s office’s chief of staff, Jason Nelson, explained there isn’t much that they can do to help.
“We’re not document examiners,” said Nelson.
“We’re not trying to do that, and the statute doesn’t allow us to do that.”
To avoid this issue in the future, Nelson clarified they have been trying to put more barriers to stop incidents like this from occurring.
However, he clarified that nothing is foolproof.
“At the end of the day, if you’ve got a clever enough criminal, they’re probably gonna get away with it, for a while,” Nelson said.
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