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74-Year-Old Scam Victim Ann Mayers Robs Bank After Being Scammed
Seth Combs
April 30, 2024
Table of Contents
74-Year-Old Grandmother Robs Bank After Losing Everything to a Scammer
Imagine losing your life savings in your seventies. You’ve worked your entire, saved up money, and you finally get some time to relax.
Then, a random text, message, or email from a scammer completely transforms your life. Within months you’re out of money, borrowing from friends and family, and resorting to anything…including robbing a bank at gunpoint.
Ann Mayer, walking in to rob the AurGroup Credit Union
Ann Mayer, a 74-year-old from Ohio, walked into the AurGroup Credit Union on April 19, 2024 with a face mask on and a handgun in her blue bag. Mayer went up to the teller, pointed the gun, and demanded money.
Within hours, police arrived at Mayer’s home where she confessed. Ann Mayer, who has no known previous criminal history, is charged with aggravated robbery with a firearm and tampering with evidence, both felonies and faces up to 15 years in prison.
It was after the arrest that the motive came to light - Ann Mayers had been scammed out of her life savings, owed $5,000 to her sister, and $65,000 to a friend.
Sgt. Brandon McCroskey of the FTPD said after the arrest that Mayers had recently been scammed by an individual claiming to need money for U.S. Customs. She told family members she might rob a bank the week before, but they didn’t take her seriously, McCroskey added.
“Seems as though, the way I understand it, she’d been communicating with some people online who may have been scamming her,” McCroskey told the local new station - WXIX. “A very common theme, unfortunately, and tragically, we see a lot of that with elderly victims who are being scammed out of large amounts of money.”
Anatomy Of The Scam - Romance Scam
Imagine enjoying your retired years, spending time with friends and family, and your life savings.
One day, you receive a text, email, or a call from a stranger out of the blue. You strike up a conversation, and the stranger seems very interested in you. Soon, you’re speaking every day and growing closer and closer. It’s exciting and you can’t wait to meet in person.
The week before you’re supposed to meet, you get a message that there’s an issue with the stranger’s passport and they need to pay a customs fee or government tax. The problem is, they don’t have the money on hand. It’s tied up in their investments or real estate or business ventures.
Out of the kindness of your heart, you offer to pay the money to help the stranger so you can finally meet in person. Unfortunately, the stranger can’t meet you because of other circumstances.
You continue talking and schedule another day to meet. Unfortunately, the stranger gets a strange illness and is in hospital and won’t be able to meet up. They need money and plead with you to send money. Again, you help.
This pattern continues on and on until you have depleted your life savings, go deep into debt, and can no longer pay the scammer. This is why they call it pig-butchering - named after the practice of farmers fattening hogs before slaughter.
Here is the step-by-step breakdown of the Romance Scam
1. Targeting the Victim
Method of Contact: Scammers often initiate contact through online platforms, such as dating sites, social media, or email, targeting seniors who are widowed, divorced, or isolated.
Profile Crafting: The scammer creates a fake profile with appealing photos (often stolen from other online sources) and a compelling backstory to attract the senior's attention.
2. Building Trust
Frequent Communication: Once contact is made, scammers engage in regular, often daily, communication to quickly build an emotional connection.
Emotional Bonding: They are adept at listening and sympathizing with the seniors' feelings and experiences, thereby fostering a false sense of intimacy and trust.
3. Deepening the Connection
Professing Love Quickly: Scammers typically escalate the relationship quickly, professing love and devotion to overwhelm the victim emotionally.
Isolation Tactics: They may attempt to isolate the senior from family and friends who might warn them against the scam.
4. The Crisis
Fabricated Emergencies: The scammer will concoct emergencies or crises (such as medical issues, business problems, or legal challenges) that require a financial solution.
Urgent Requests for Help: They ask for money, often pleading urgency and stressing that the senior is the only one who can help.
5. Financial Exploitation
Requesting Money Transfers: Requests typically involve sending money through hard-to-trace methods, like wire transfers, prepaid cards, or cryptocurrencies.
Continued Exploitation: Even after a crisis is resolved, new crises emerge, leading to repeated requests for financial assistance.
6. Maintaining Control
Long-Term Manipulation: Some scammers maintain their deceitful relationships for months or even years to continue exploiting the victim financially.
Gaslighting: If victims express doubts or confront the scammer, they might be met with manipulation techniques such as gaslighting to make them doubt their perceptions and continue believing the scammer's lies.
7. Endgame
Disappearance: Once the scammer deems the relationship no longer profitable, they often vanish, leaving the victim financially and emotionally devastated.
How to Protect Yourself from the Romance Scam
In the perfect world, the best advice is:
Don’t respond to phone calls, texts, or emails from strangers.
If you do, Here are the next steps:
Ask lots of questions and pay attention to their grasp of the English language
Ask for a video call where they are outside walking around. Deepfake backgrounds are not as advanced yet to capture everything.
Never use What’s App or Telegram to communicate
Ask to meet in person
Do not send money - including gift cards.
If you’ve been a victim or know a victim, please contact us and we will try to assist.