On May 8th, 2026, at approximately 6:47 pm, the victim contacted the police department advising they were scammed through Facebook. The victim, who resides in the 400 block of West Maplewood Avenue, advised on May 2nd, they responded to a profile "Cooper's Brittany Puppies and Adoption" to inquire about a dog. The victim was told to provide $300 through Apple Cash to put a deposit down. The victim advised the transaction would not go through and were told to use Zelle to send the deposit. These transactions also did not work. The transactions came up on the victim's credit card account as a hold. The victim advised they later received a phone call and upon answering they were advised their bank was calling about fraudulent transactions on their credit card account. The victim was advised they wanted to attempt some "test transactions" to make sure everything was good with their account. The victim provided their account information and was informed everything was good. The victim checked her account the next morning and determined multiple transactions had taken place overnight. The transactions totaled approximately $16,000. The victim contacted their banks fraud department and were able to get a large amount of the money back. Anyone with information related to this incident is asked to contact the police department. 

The police department reminds residents they should investigate Facebook profiles prior to sending money. If anyone receives a call from their bank advising they are from the fraud department, you should not provide information. You should hang up the phone and call the bank back using numbers provided either on their cards or from their accounts to insure the individuals they are speaking with are from their actual banks. Scammers will go to great lengths and unfortunately are able to get people to trust and believe them, or they would not be successful. Unfortunately the technology available to easily move money causes innocent victims the need to constantly verify things are legitimate.