A
Chesterton resident fell afoul of a phone scam this week, Chesterton Police
said.
According to police, on Wednesday a 40-year-old woman reported that, after
receiving a voicemail from a “Steve Rogers” notifying her of an unpaid debt
in her husband’s name, she called an outfit calling itself “Legal Mediation
Services” and spoke to a “Tracy Walker,” who made what’s become a con
artist’s standard threat: “an arrest warrant was going to be issued” for the
woman’s husband unless the debt was paid.
The
woman, accordingly, provided Walker with her debit card number to withdraw
an initial payment of $280, then a different debit card number for further
withdrawals of $313.32 on March 1, March 15, and March 31. The woman “also
completed a payment authorization via e-mail for the company to have access
to her account,” police said.
After doing all these things, the woman then “decided to check on line for
the company,” where she found “numerous complaints” posted by people about
the Legal Mediation Services. At this point the woman realized she’d been
scammed.
The
woman first contacted her bank and had both accounts canceled, although $280
had already been withdrawn from one of them. She then filed her complaint
with the CPD.
“When I got back to the CPD,” the investigating officer stated in his
report, “I called and spoke with ‘Tracy Walker.’ She got angry and hung up
on me. I then called approximately 30 more times and spoke with
approximately 10 different people. I was unable to gain any more information
that could help get their location. I did, however, reach a point where they
would not speak with me. They just answered the phone and hung it back up
without talking.”