ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A Jacksonville man is accused of scheming to defraud an 84-year-old St. Johns County woman out of several thousand dollars.
Investigators said Jerone Martin impersonated a bank representative to get that money.
It started with a phone call to the woman. Authorities said she was contacted by people pretending to be with American Express and Truist Bank.
Those callers told her to take out $5,000 in cash from her checking account and place it in a plastic bag for pickup by someone posing as an FDIC agent.
They claimed the funds were needed for verification purposes to protect her account
“Asking you to take out cash out of your atm is definitely not a way that fraud is typically handled by actual banks,” John Breyault with the National Consumers League said.
According to Martin’s arrest report, the woman met an Uber driver in a St. Johns County parking lot to give up the cash. That driver then took the money to a Wawa gas station in Nassau County, where he handed the funds to Martin.
Investigators said that before Martin took the money, he was seen talking on his cellphone the entire time he was at the gas station.
Breyault said imposter scams are one of the top complaints reported to the Federal Trade Commission every year.
“Particularly when we are talking about older consumers, while they tend to have fewer complaints than younger people do, they lose money at a much higher rate,” Breyault said.
He said you should never hand over cash to someone claiming to be from your bank.
“If you are concerned that there may actually be fraud in your account, get in touch with your bank independently.”
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office told Action News Jax that Martin was released from jail.
Court records show his bond was $47,500.
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