Authorities in two states were investigating a fraud case that left a Kansas woman and two elderly Lincoln men fleeced out of $124,000.
Lincoln police said they were contacted by Lansing, Kansas, authorities about a 60-year-old woman who lost $20,000 after she was contacted via Facebook and wired the money to a Lincoln bank account.
The Lansing woman was told by scammers that she had won a federal grant and would receive $500,000 after she paid $20,000 in taxes on the award, Lincoln Officer Angela Sands said. The woman wired the money to the Lincoln account as taxes on the grant.
Authorities learned that the account owners, a 70-year-old Lincoln man and his 69-year-old roommate, were also victims of the same scam, losing $104,000 in cash and electronics to the scammers, Sands said. They sent the goods and cash to a New York state account as a tax payment on the false grant, she said.
The scammers had the Lincoln men’s bank account number, Sands said.
“This is a convoluted one, for sure,” she said about the scam.
No arrests have been announced, Sands said, and the investigation into the case continues.
“We’re working with Lansing police,” she said, “and hopefully we’ll get this solved.”
Lansing is situated just northwest of Kansas City.
