MONROE, CT — A Monroe family reported the theft of $30,000 cash in a phone scam, in which the caller sent a driver to their home to pick up the money.
On Wednesday afternoon, a woman told police her father received a phone call from someone pretending to be a lawyer, who told him he was representing his nephew, who was in jail and needed to post $30,000 bond to be bailed out.
The caller advised the uncle to stay on the phone, while an associate drove to his house to collect the money. A while later, a silver sedan pulled up and the victim’s daughter handed over the money, police said.
When the caller kept calling and asking for more money, she realized it was a scam and called police to report it.
The Monroe Police Detective Division is handling the matter.
“In many of these scams, while the details may differ, the caller tries to keep you on the phone, focused on them,” Lt. Kevin McKellick said Friday. “They oftentimes try to use urgency as an excuse for why you need to act. If you ever are in question, hang up and call the family member who they stated was in jeopardy.”
McKellick said no legitimate representative in a legal situation would send someone to your home for an immediate cash payment.
“We’ve had different versions of this — someone is locked up or trapped in another country,” he said, “usually the caller is posing as a lawyer, sometimes with someone acting as a relative talking in the background.”
I.D. thief uses forged license
On Thursday evening, a Monroe woman told officers someone used a forged a copy of her Connecticut driver’s license to withdraw $4,500 from her M&T Bank checking account at a branch in New Jersey.
Then the suspect tried to withdraw $4,800 from a different branch in New Jersey, before the teller became suspicious, stopped the transaction and contacted someone at the Connecticut branch, who called the victim. The Monroe woman told her bank she was not in New Jersey, according to the report.
The woman closed her checking account and contacted the three major credit bureaus to freeze her financial accounts.
The Monroe Police Detective Division is investigating, while M&T Bank is conducting its own investigation.
A bogus Verizon account
A Monroe man told police he received the delivery of a new 5G SIM card for his phone through Verizon on Dec. 21, 2024, but thought it was a mistake because he did not order it. He brought the package inside and didn’t open it.
The following week, he started to receive a series of bills from Verizon, one for $54 and another for $154. While looking at the bill, he noticed the phone number on it was not his number and that his name was misspelled.
He spoke to a Verizon representative, who told him someone opened an account using his Social Security number, police said, adding the representative advised the victim to file a police report.
Police advised him to contact the three major credit bureaus to freeze his accounts.
Mail thieves
Police responded to two separate complaints of stolen mail this past week.
At 12:14 p.m. Wednesday, a Purdy Hill Road man told officers he placed several items inside his mailbox, including checks, for pickup by the mail carrier.
Then he noticed a dark gray sedan, possibly a Toyota Camry, pull up to his mailbox with the driver’s side facing it, before turning around and leaving. The mailbox door was open and the mail was gone, police said.
Police contacted the Post Office and confirmed the mail was not picked up by them yet. The victim put a stop payment on the checks, which he has since canceled.
On Thursday, an Old Fawn Hill Road resident called police at 2:17 p.m. to report the theft of a package from her porch.
She was inside her house when she observed a dark brown Toyota being driven up her driveway, police said, adding she thought nothing of it, believing it was a friend of a child in her home.
A male dressed in black got out and took the FedEx package off her property, then ran back to the car, which sped away. The victim told police the vehicle may have had a New Jersey registration plate.
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