Over $122,000 recovered for Larose phone scam victim

Published: Jun. 1, 2023 at 8:28 AM CDT

LAROSE, La. (WVUE) - Over $122,000 has been recovered and returned to a Larose woman who was the victim of a phone scam, according to information from the Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office.

Sheriff Craig Webre said that an investigation into the reported scam began early last month when the victim reported receiving a call from someone that claimed to be from Social Security Administration. The sheriff said that the victim reported wired $93,000 from her bank account. The victim also told the sheriff’s office that she received a call the following day requesting that she wire over $50,000 to the same account. According to the sheriff’s office, the victim wired over a total of $146,000 to the alleged scammer.

The sheriff’s office said that they were able to work with the bank to locate the scam account in question, order a seizure warrant, and returned $122,000 of the victim’s funds that still remained in the account.

A search warrant for the account holder has also been submitted and investigators are waiting on those results.

“In most of these scam cases, the money has been voluntarily given by the victim to the scam artists and is nearly impossible to recover,” said Sheriff Webre. “This is due to a variety of reasons including the fact that these calls typically originate out of state or even out of the country. Even being able to recover the amount we did in this case, the victim still lost over $23,000 which may never be recovered.”

Sheriff Webre warned residents that anyone calling posing as a billing department is likely running a scam and that it’s best to get off the line with the caller.

“They are trying to fast-talk you into parting with your money, and they don’t want you to have an opportunity to think about it or do any research,” said Sheriff Webre. They may take the form of a government agency, a healthcare or utility provider, or even law enforcement.”

Anyone that believes they may have been a victim of a phone scam should report it to law enforcement, Sheriff Webre said.

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