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Ocala police look for help warning of scheme targeting elderly residents

OCALA, Fla. — Ocala police are recruiting volunteers to help prevent a common scam targeting the elderly.

The scammers say they have your loved one -- or you owe money to the police or court system -- and you have to pay with gift cards.

Police are putting the word out about the scams and they planning to go to stores that sell gift cards.

There they want to make sure clerks realize what’s going on and have them alert any potential victims who may show up.

"It’s just so terrible that they are doing these things to people,” said 84-year-old victim Kay Bishop. “It was really upsetting, for the simple reason because I thought I was helping my nephew."

Bishop was ripped off by one con artists who pretended to be a family member in jail. Another guy pretended to be the fake family member’s attorney and told the victim they needed $4,000 in Home Depot gift cards for bail money.

Bishop bought the gift cards and gave the thieves the card numbers. Afterward, they took all the money and disappeared.

In hindsight, she realizes she should have paid attention to all the red flags.

Police said bishop isn’t alone and dozens of others have reported similar gift card scams during the past few months.

"In many cases, the people committing these crimes will immediately transfer these funds form the gift card to another account. So the funds are not traceable, the gift card is no longer valid," said Meghan Shay, with the Ocala Police Department. “We are planning to make contact with store clerks alerting them to this scam.”

Officers will tell workers when they see seniors sending large sums of money on gift cards, they can warn them about scams and contact police.

Police said if someone calls for whatever reason asking for gift cards, it’s a scam and if you have been ripped off, police want you to report it.