CHEEKTOWAGA, N.Y. — An alert New York UPS employee is credited with saving an elderly Iowa woman from losing thousands of dollars in cash.
The worker called police on Tuesday when he felt something wasn't right about a package that had been delivered to the Union Road store. An investigation showed the box contained $8,300 and was sent from an 81-year-old Iowa woman. The woman got a phone call from someone claiming to be from the IRS and was told she needed to send the money to process a cash prize she had won in the Austrailan lottery.
What Daniel Dumesh, 26, of Holland Landing, Ontario didn't know, however, was that two Cheektowaga, New York, detectives were waiting for him in the back of the UPS store when he showed up to pick up the package.
Dumesh is charged with grand larceny and is being held on $25,000 bail at the Erie County Holding Center. Police will make sure the victim gets her money back.
Cheektowaga Police want to remind people to ignore all calls and requests to send cash or gift cards through the mail to prevent a potential similar incident from happening to them.
I live in Iowa, Why are all these big lottery scams happening in Iowa?I hope the Tipton brothers spend alot of time in prison.They are free now all the money they made from five state lottery's has keep them free for now.
Good job UPS!
Two detectives were waiting for Dumesh. Reminded me of " How to catch a predator" where these guys show up at these locations hoping to nail an underage girl and Chris Hansen enters the picture and asks " what are you doing here? "...priceless.
Dumesh is one dumb crook!
Best story I have heard all day. Yay UPS driver!
Good for the UPS employee!
one more lottery scam artist off the street.
What a dumesh.
Maybe someone should step in and start handling these Ole people money for them after they get a certain age it's obvious they can't seem to do it themselves.
The OP says this was in NY.
The victim lives in Iowa but she sent the money to Buffalo where the perpetrator was gonna pick up the money.
Good eye, my faux pas.
Glad it all worked out.
My thought is this - If I get a letter saying that I won a large amount of cash but need to send money to pay taxes or processing, I say if this is real, take the fees and taxes out of the winnings and send me the rest. I don't have to pay anything.
Bagent, They have prepared answers for every reply you give them. Scammers, in general, are professionals at what they do. These conmen and conwomen are hungry and desperately need your cash for drugs, alcohol, cigarettes, gambling, etc.
When you win the Lottery you will be contacted by these crooks. It will be difficult to tell the difference between a legitimate request and an illegitimate one. The simple two letter word NO will go far.
Poor GMA !!
"What a dumesh" , priceless. It's old time Russian m@f:@ tactics. Still happens. I wonder how many people he tried to do that do in the first place. And how he got informaton about those people. Iowa-Buffalo. What's the connection?
"Other people taking care of older peoples monies for them.."
Nursing home facilities do this all the time for the elderly that they are supposed to be taking care of, and they "double dip" them all the time also. They steal from them for the same reasons that others do. Because they consider them old and weak and worthless. And I think it's a shame. That UPS driver should be commended. A smart and good person.
Glad that a crime was prevented, but I was wondering the same thing cbr$. We'll probably never find out. Even though there are privacy concerns, UPS does have the right to inspect packages according to their internal security protocol, especially given all the illegal activity they unintentionally facilitate.