Sarasota Police Warn of Cash Withdrawal Scam
Police in Sarasota, Florida, have warned residents about a scam involving large cash withdrawals and rideshare services. In the scheme, scammers instruct victims to withdraw large sums of money and then give the cash to a rideshare driver. Authorities are urging residents to be cautious of unsolicited financial instructions and to verify any unusual requests directly with their banks.
- In one Sarasota case, a 73-year-old woman was convinced to withdraw $18,500 after spending approximately two hours on the phone with a scammer posing as a bank fraud investigator. - The scammers instructed the victim to tell bank employees who questioned the large withdrawal that the money was for home repairs and holiday travel. - After the victim withdrew the cash, the scammers arranged for a rideshare courier to pick up the money, which was intended to be transported to Miami. - The Sarasota Police Department's Real-Time Operations Center was able to locate the rideshare driver, who was unaware of the scam, and recover the victim's money. - This type of "imposter scam" is the most common category of fraud reported to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), with consumers losing a reported $2.95 billion to such schemes in 2024. - Scams involving couriers are becoming more frequent, with law enforcement in other Florida counties, such as St. Johns County, also warning residents about schemes where victims are directed to give cash to rideshare drivers. - Nationally, there has been a significant increase in high-value losses to impersonation scams among older adults since 2020, with a more than four-fold increase in reports of losses exceeding $10,000. - The rideshare drivers are often unwitting participants in these crimes, used as "money mules" to transport the illegally obtained cash, with scammers using stolen identities to order the rides, making them difficult to track.
