Tipline Investigation: Don’t Fall For the Wheelchair Scam

Our Tipline investigation begins with a sob story.

Every scammer has one. They love to suck their victims in with a good tearjerker, a story that pulls at the heart strings.

Sadly, legitimate businesses can mistakenly help the thieves by being careless.

We made a surprise visit to Golden One Credit Union in Paso Robles after Golden One officials ignored repeated phone calls about one of its unhappy customers.

“So, I have to pay $2,959 by December 22nd,” said Mersades Myers as she described how she got ripped off.

The Paso Robles resident said the scammer stole $2,959 from her.

It all started when she signed up with the website Care.com to be a babysitter.

“Out of nowhere I get this text saying, hey, can you watch my kid, 6 years old,” said Myers.

Here comes the sob story:

“She told me she lost a 4-month-old baby and her husband in a car accident. Her 6 year-old is the only one who survived, so he’s in a wheelchair,” Myers said.

Myers fell for it. The scammer sent her a cashier’s check supposedly for pay in advance and money for a wheelchair. Myers opened a new account at the Golden One branch in Paso Robles and deposited the check. Myers said the credit union did not put a hold on it, a common bank practice used to verify funds in a deposit.

The next business day, the scammer said she needed the money now for the wheelchair and instructs Myers to take the money out and wire it to Africa.

At this point, Golden One officials could have stopped the scam by simply putting a hold on the check, preventing Myers from using the funds until it was verified as real. Instead, Golden One let Myers withdraw the money.

Within days, a credit union worker broke the bad news to Myers.

“I had a red flag on my account,” Myers said. “I asked, ‘Why? what’s going on?’ and she said that the check was a fake,” she explained with a disgusted look on her face.

Golden One essentially turned a bogus check into real money and that’s what scammers are counting on.

We wanted to know if Golden One had a protocol for opening up new accounts to protect their customers. Citing privacy concerns, Golden One spokesman Scott Ingram declined to talk about Myers’ complaint, but he said they do have a protocol. However, he acknowledged that Golden One employees are allowed to exercise their best judgement when it comes to putting a hold on a check. Ingram would not say why the credit union did not put a hold on Myers’ bogus check, especially since she had just opened a new account.

Our Tipline Investigation discovered this so-called “wheelchair scam” is a big problem.

Other victims, with stories almost identical to Myers have posted warnings online. It appears many, if not most, had signed up with Care.com looking for work.

Meredith Robertson, Care.com’s Director of Corporate Communications, sent us the following written statement: “Care.com is an online marketplace that allows families to meet and connect with providers of caregiving services. Overpayment scams are often targeted at caregivers and we continuously research processes to improve the safety of our site for our members. To that end, we have implemented a number of features, including resources on how to avoid consumer fraud scams, a monitored messaging system and fraud detection tools, to create a safer environment. Equally as important to the measures we have instituted is for families and caregivers to exercise their own appropriate steps in safety.”

Myers said Golden One still calls her several times a week demanding she pay back all of the money.

“It’s hard for me right now because I have no job,” said Myers.

Sadly, Myers has her own sob story to tell now.

It’s easy to say, “How could someone fall for that?”until it happens to you or someone you know. Consider this: The police officer who wrote up Myers’ police report said his 90-year-old mother was ripped off by a similar scam.

Golden One Credit Union and Care.com are victims also, although it appears they could do more to protect their customers and their businesses.

We checked with other banks and found it is routine to put a hold, sometimes a 10-day hold, on a deposited check.

If you have a problem and need help, call our Tipline at (805) 882-3903.