Greene County deputies arrested a scammer who tried to bilk a local woman of $50,000 he convinced her to give him on Feb. 21.
Da’Vhon Crowden, 29, of 2506 Wylene St., Jacksonville, Fla., has been charged with theft by deception, accessing of computers for fraudulent purposes, and exploitation and intimidation of disabled adults or elder adults.
According to the GCSO, Deputy John Jackson was dispatched to Wells Fargo Bank in Greensboro to investigate a reported fraud.
Jackson contacted the victim of the attempted scam, who told him she had found a picture in her photo gallery that she didn’t know how she had obtained.
According to the report, the photo showed a PayPal purchase of a Netflix subscription for $210.79. The photo also included a phone number to call if you didn’t recognize the transaction.
The victim called the number and spoke to someone who identified himself as Jeff.
Jeff told the victim to log into her computer and go to Google. She was then instructed to click the link, which gave Jeff remote access to her laptop. The victim was then instructed to log into her bank account.
According to the report, Jeff then remotely transferred $49,000 from her brokerage account to her checking account.
Jeff told the victim that she had made a bad mistake and transferred that money from his company account to her checking account and that she would have to give it back, or they would get in trouble.
He told the victim she would have to withdraw the money from her account in cash and give it back to him because when she made the mistake, it closed his online account access was closed for security. The victim then went to her bank and withdrew the cash while Jeff was still on the phone.
According to the report, Jeff said he would have someone come to her house to pick up the money.
The victim went home and put the cash in a pink gift bag. Crowden arrived at the victim’s house around 11:30 a.m., and the victim handed him the cash. As Crowden left, cameras on the victim’s house took a picture of his tag.
Jackson relayed the tag information to dispatch, and Sgt. Jordan Knowles and Investigator Don Smith began tracking the vehicle on the Flock camera system.
The vehicle was located traveling west on I-20 near milepost 129.5 and was pulled over by Knowles and Deputy Leo Sierra.
The money was found in the vehicle and transported to the bank, where it was returned to the victim.