An elderly New York woman lost approximately $310,000 after receiving a fraudulent call from someone claiming to represent her bank's fraud department.
According to the NYPD, the incident occurred on Friday, August 14th, near Herrick Avenue and Gaynor Street in the Charleston neighborhood of Staten Island. The caller claimed the woman's bank account had been compromised and instructed her to wire $310,000 to a Bank of America account.
Police say the woman later discovered the scam. Santander Bank subsequently canceled a second attempted wire transfer of $447,200 before it could be processed.
The NYPD is searching for Luis Irahera, 34, in connection with the grand larceny. Police describe him as 5 feet 4 inches tall, approximately 200 pounds, with short black hair, brown eyes, a black beard, and tattoos on his right forearm and left wrist.
Anyone with information is encouraged to contact the NYPD's Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-800-577-TIPS (8477).
In a related case, police are also investigating Breider Iriarte Campomar, accused of posing as a Chase Bank employee in a separate scam that defrauded a grocery store worker of tens of thousands of dollars. Campomar failed to appear for court after being released under pretrial conditions by a Cook County judge.
