Retired Nurse, Doris Galinas, 84, is one of the latest victims to be taken in by heartless fraudsters. "They called and said I won a big prize from the Mega Millions and there were two cars," Galinas said, but her high expectations of a surprise lottery windfall came at a price.
"Taxes. You have to pay for the taxes, the state taxes. It never stopped," Galinas recalled. The only way she could pay the bogus taxes was by dipping into her life savings and she did so again and again.
When her available funds began to grow short the tricksters suggested Galinas refinance her home. She did so and continued to use post office services to send the payments, but the retirees frequent visits began to make post office workers suspicious.
"We were concerned for her coming in so often mailing via Express," postal clerk, Daniel Stewart said, but when Steward and his fellow workers suggested she may be being scammed Galinas always insisted she was fine.
"They would say we just want to make sure you're not being scammed and I said oh no I'm not being scammed," Galinas admitted.
Eventually the worried clerks were forced to share their concerns with postal inspectors, who finally managed to put a halt to the payments.
"They [the scammers] have absolutely no mercy when it comes to exploiting our senior citizens," US Postal Inspector, Michael Gendron said. "So the best thing we can possibly do is talk about it, so that everybody knows how the schemes operate."
Galinas' payments to the thieves totaled an incredible $100,000.
