PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — A reminder from Port St. Lucie police to let them know right away if you think you've fallen victim to a scam.
An 80-year-old Port St. Lucie man is thankful that police managed to recover more than $300,000 he feared was lost in an online investment scam.
The victim, who wished to remain anonymous, told WPTV's Jon Shainman he first found this online investment school through a conversation on WhatsApp. At the time it was called John Anderson Business School. He was persuaded to invest $315,000 over several months in late 2023.
"People think it could never happen to you. But I’m an extremely pragmatic fellow and it happened to me," the victim said.
He says the scammers had created a "bogus, fraudulent trading platform" and he became suspicious when his statements showed $6 million in investment gains.
"They were exaggerating the investment returns, that was one of the things that made me suspicious," he said.
This spring, the man was told the investment school was merging with another company, and that everyone had to clear out their accounts and pay taxes on their gains. It was then he reached out to police.
Economic crimes detectives managed to locate the money the victim had placed in two bank accounts before scammers could withdraw it.
Detective Paul Griffith of the Port St. Lucie Police Department said his team has recovered about half a million dollars from financial scams in the past quarter.
"I’ve been doing this for 30 years, I’ve been in economic crimes since 2013 and they went through a lot of effort to get this money," he said.
Griffith's advice is not to be ashamed to come forward if you're worried you've been a victim.
"They get embarrassed and they don’t want to tell people what they did. I have that happen all the time and they shouldn’t be embarrassed. These people are trained to get your money," he said.
Police say this particular operation was based in New York and while it’s been shut down, no arrests have yet been made.
