A 76-year-old woman was defrauded at her home in the Villas de Loíza neighborhood in Puerto Rico on Tuesday afternoon by impostors posing as bank employees, according to a police complaint. The woman said she received a call from the number (716) 573-1742 from a woman who identified herself as "señora López" and falsely claimed to work for First Bank, telling her there were problems with her debit and credit cards and that an employee would be sent to her home to collect them.
She then received another call from the impostor, who told her that José Santiago was in front of her house so she could hand over the cards, which she did. The victim later checked her bank balance and found it showed $0.00, when she had previously held about $4,000 on deposit. Agent Edna Díaz, assigned to the police precinct, investigated and referred the case to the Property Crimes Division of the Criminal Investigation Corps (CIC) in Carolina to continue the probe.
The Puerto Rico Police urged the public not to hand over bank cards, personal identification numbers (PINs) or confidential information to people who request such data by phone, and to contact their bank and the police about any suspicious situation.