CANTON, Mich. (WXYZ) — The Canton Police Department is warning the public about a new text message scam involving Detroit’s 36th District Court after an 83-year-old resident had her debit card information stolen.
Scammers used the stolen information to make fraudulent purchases at several stores.
Watch Demetrios Sanders' video report below:
In early March, Canton resident Cora Huguely thought she parked illegally. Shortly after, she received a text message about unpaid parking tickets. The message included a summons and a QR code for payment, posing as the 36th District Court.
"I am feeling like oh, they caught me, but I was so relieved because it said $6 fine. I thought wow, I’ll pay this now rather than pay a penalty," Huguely said.
Huguely quickly found out the message didn't actually come from the court.
"In the morning, I check my bank balances," Huguely said. "And I noticed this big red ink and I about had a heart attack."
When checking her accounts, Huguely noticed three charges for more than $500 each at Home Depot. After talking to her bank and police, she realized she was scammed.
"They violated me. They took my money and spent it as they wanted to," Huguely said.
Canton police identified several people involved in the scheme. Christopher Thomas, 30, of Clinton Township is charged with identity theft, financial transaction device fraud and being a habitual offender for his alleged role.
"Working with our big box retailers and their investigators and with us, we were actually able to hone in on who the suspect in this case was," Detective Sgt. Jeff Zajac said.
Zajac said scams like these are becoming more common.
"These scams not only target everybody in the community, but a lot of times, they focus on our elderly," Zajac said.
Zajac encourages people to look for red flags.
"A court system is never going to reach out to you in a text message and ask for you to pay anything," Zajac said.
Zajac also said the community should lean on family or reach out to police if they are unsure.
"Give us a call so that we can guide and say hey, this doesn’t sound right," Zajac said.
Huguely was refunded the money that was taken. Moving forward, she plans to be a lot more careful.
"A person’s word is not their word, a document is not a real document. There’s so many things we have to be aware of," Huguely said.
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