ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — One suspect is behind bars and the other is still on the loose after police say they tricked elderly victims into handing over their debit cards.
Deneshia Rhynes and Mary-Mateisha Sanders are accused of posing as CFE Federal Credit Union employees and telling their victims something was wrong with their debit cards and needed to turn them in.
They would tell victims to put them in the mail and would later go around collecting them from mailboxes, police said.
“They said put your card in the mailbox and send it to Winter Park,” victim Ceddie Wilson said.
Some victims, like Herschel McCauley, were completely fooled by the pair’s story.
“I actually handed her my card,” he said.
McCauley, who is battling cancer, realized soon after that his bank account had been emptied of roughly $10,000.
“A week or so later… the accounts have been drained and victims realize there’s no more money in the accounts,” said Florida Department of Law Enforcement special agent supervisor Daniel Warren.
Police say the pair took the scheme even further by depositing bogus checks into the victims’ accounts and withdrawing it using their debit cards before the credit union realized the checks were bad.
McCauley was mad at the women for what they did, but also himself for falling prey to their plan.
“I’d like to think I’m smarter than that,” he said.
In all, investigators say Rhynes and Sanders made off with roughly $51,000 in the scheme.
Sanders has been arrested in the case and Rhynes is still on the run.
Anyone with information on her whereabouts is asked to call the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
WFTV
