After scam cost elderly East Bay woman $200K, police used fake cash to arrest courier

PLEASANTON A local elderly woman lost to phone scammers before she realized what was going on But police say the scammers weren t satisfied and that may prove to be their undoing It all started in late April when the woman got a pop-up ad on her computer telling her to call a number for technical assistance When she called it a person informed her that her bank account had been compromised What was needed to rectify the issue was cold hard cash he explained and he d be sending a courier to retrieve it government revealed The courier came to collect tens of thousands from the woman Again And again By early June she realized the whole thing was a ruse and that it had cost her more than agents declared The scammers were planning to come again but police had a trap ready They gave the woman fake cash to hand over then arrested the courier after he arrived for the money The suspect a -year-old man was booked on suspicion of attempted grand theft No charges have been filed against him yet but such delays are typical in white collar cases where complete investigations tend to require extra work Police say they re still looking into the matter and working in an attempt to recover the stolen money