A Newhall resident in his 80s who thought he was helping his grandson make bail was scammed out of $54,000 by a suspect who’s been the subject of a monthslong investigation by the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station, according to court records obtained by The Signal.
The victim, whom The Signal has chosen not to identify, received a phone call from a person who identified themselves as “James Royce,” which detectives believe to be an alias.
The man said the victim’s grandson had been in a car collision and he was now incarcerated. Payment was required in order for the grandson to be released from custody.
The victim was instructed to put cash in a box and leave it for a Lyft driver to pick up and deliver it back to a person who was pretending to be his grandson’s attorney.
Between July 22 and July 23, three boxes with payment inside were handed to separate drivers, which were identified in a detective’s court statement as totaling $54,000. The victim later was able to contact his grandson and learned that he had not been in an accident nor was he facing incarceration.
After receiving the theft report, station detectives began trying to figure out who ordered the Lyft deliveries for the packages in October, with mixed results.
All of the drivers were tracked down by station detectives using a combination of security footage from gated Friendly Valley home where the victim lived, which is a senior-only community, and electronic records. However, the drivers appeared to have no knowledge of what was in the packages they were driving around, according to the investigating officer’s report.
Station officials did not release any information about the suspect Tuesday, only indicating that an arrest had not been made at this time.
Deputy Robert Jensen, spokesman for the SCV Sheriff’s Station, described the incident as both heartbreaking and an important cautionary tale for a number of reasons.
The first thing he wanted to make sure people were aware of is that the Sheriff’s Department will never solicit for money over the phone, even though the suspect in this crime actually was pretending to be an attorney representing the victim’s grandson. Such claims are part of common scam techniques, he said.
However, Jensen also said there are two ways people can check if their loved one might be in a custody situation that could require a family member’s help.
The two ways to check LASD custody records, he said: online, through the Sheriff’s Department’s custody records website, a person can tell if a loved one is in jail by searching at app5.lasd.org; but the surest way is to call the station at 661-260-4000, Jensen said. Someone there is happy to walk a member of the public through the next steps or look up the name of someone who might be in custody, if a person isn’t computer-savvy.
He also mentioned any call from a jail would be recorded and indicate that it’s from an inmate before the start of the call.
It’s also unfortunate, he said, because with artificial intelligence tools now available to criminals, they can not only clone phone numbers and email addresses to trick people, but scammers are also able to make a call with what sounds like a loved one’s voice.
“The Sheriff’s Department takes crimes against the elderly, vulnerable populations and dependent adults very seriously — and in many cases, they come with bail enhancements,” Jensen said, referring to holds that can keep suspects in custody while they await a court date.
He also shared a public-information video posted by LASD officials January 2020 called “Scam school,” which focuses on spotting cybercrime, technology, and current criminal techniques from the perspective of fictional scam artist Phillip Shampford’s Scam Training, or “PSST.”
