MELVINDALE, Mich. (WXYZ) — A 68-year-old Melvindale woman lost nearly $6,000 after scammers convinced her to hand over her debit and credit cards to a man posing as a bank employee who showed up at her front door.
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The incident happened on Sept. 2. The woman, identified only as Cindy G. due to safety concerns, said it started with a phone call that sounded legitimate.
"As he was talking to me, he made the comment. He goes, 'it's people like this that really make me mad. That hurt our senior citizens.' And I think that's where he broke down the ice a little bit because I thought he really meant it," Cindy said.
The caller claimed her bank accounts had been compromised and told her she needed to hand over her cards for protection.
"He said to protect my debit card and that, he goes, they're going to need my PIN number. But I mean, I gave it to him," Cindy said.
The caller then told her someone from "card demolition" would come to her home to collect and destroy her cards. Minutes after she shared her address, a man arrived at her door wearing what appeared to be the bank's uniform and what police say was a fake ID badge.
The caller instructed Cindy to place her debit and credit cards in an envelope and hand them to the man using a special code phrase.
"Well, the code was, this is for my grandson," Cindy said.
Cindy said she did not realize something was wrong until about 45 minutes after handing over the cards.
"After I gave it to him. And like I said, 45 minutes went by. That's when I called my bank. We started freezing everything," Cindy said.
By then, the suspect had already withdrawn close to $6,000 from her accounts.
"I was duped, and I was crazy because I did give him the information he wanted," Cindy said.
Three days later, investigators caught a break when a Flock camera alert identified the suspect's vehicle in a neighboring city.
Melvindale Police Chief Chris Egan said the technology was critical to cracking the case.
"It would be almost impossible to crack. It was a rental car. They used fake names," Egan said.
Police arrested Damere Jackson. Investigators say they found nearly $10,000 in cash inside the vehicle, including a bundle matching one of the withdrawals from Cindy's bank. The 24-year-old now faces eight felony charges, including identity theft.
Egan said Flock cameras have proven valuable beyond this case.
"We've had five or six cases this month that were solved because of Flock. Serious cases," Egan said.
Egan said enforcement alone is not enough to protect residents and urged the community not to blame victims of these types of scams.
"So you can't always blame the victim, and you shouldn't. But what's unique about this case a little bit is we did use our tools," Egan said.
The Melvindale Police Department has launched a new app, MyMEPD, to help keep residents informed and make it easier to report suspicious activity. Egan said the department plans to use the app as its primary communication tool with the public.
"90% of the information we put on the public is going to be through this app," Egan said.
The MyMEPD app is free and available on both the Google Play and Apple App stores.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
