![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/04\/scammers-arrested.webp?resize=932%2C470&ssl=1\")
<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\nPolk County Sheriff Grady Judd said Michael Lawrence and co-defendant Max Richards told the victim that she won $3 million from Publisher’s Clearinghouse, but needed to pay taxes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“It was an elaborate scheme that worked, because once again, a very elderly lady, who is our victim with some early dementia issues, was totally scammed,” Judd explained. “She borrowed money against her retirement and against her stock at Publix.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the duo said that wasn\u2019t enough, she went back to Publix Employees Federal Credit Union for more money. That\u2019s when the staff tried to warn her. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“When she went for the first check, they said \u2018are you sure you\u2019re not scammed?\u2019 She said \u2018no, I\u2019m buying a boat,\u2019” Judd said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The sheriff explained the victim was groomed to say that by Lawrence and Richards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“These guys told her they will question you when writing a big check,” Judd said. “Don\u2019t tell them you won Publisher\u2019s Clearinghouse, because it\u2019s a surprise. Just say you\u2019re buying a boat.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She ultimately sent three checks to Alabama worth more than $477,000. Two of those checks were cashed in Lauderdale Lakes. Video from the bank connected detectives to Lawrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Scammers are very good and convincing at what they do. They don\u2019t call them con men for nothing,” Judd said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
He explained that these cases are extremely difficult for both detectives and the victim, because the money is hard to track down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“You go obtain subpoenas and then the bank takes their time about getting data back,” said Judd. “The money is gone, long gone.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
They were able to only recover $40,000. The sheriff said if someone is calling and asking for money through email, text, social media or the phone, it\u2019s likely a scam. He hopes to save another senior from losing their life\u2019s savings. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
“They work hard their entire life for their money,” Judd said. “Now, they have $477,000 worth of debt lodged against their retirement stock.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lawrence faces two charges \u2013 obtaining property by fraud over $50,000 and grand theft of $100,000 or more. He had his first appearance on Friday where the judge issued a $25,000 bond on both counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Polk County investigators are still looking for Richards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
A Lakeland woman is now without more than $400,000 after she was targeted by two scammers. It all started when two men called her, saying she had won the “Publisher’s Clearinghouse Sweepstakes.” Polk… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":44760,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"0","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"dois","default_image_id":71799,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[12,14],"tags":[8316],"class_list":["post-44759","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local","category-news","tag-lakeland-woman-targeted-by-two-scammers-loses-400k"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44759","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=44759"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44759\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":44761,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/44759\/revisions\/44761"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44760"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=44759"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=44759"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=44759"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}