TUCSON, Ariz. (KVOA) – The Pima County Sheriff’s Department (PCSD) Fraud Unit has returned $90,000 to a fraud victim in California after a detailed investigation spanning several months.
The investigation began on September 11, 2025, when a local credit union alerted the PCSD Fraud Unit about suspicious activity involving an 80-year-old Pima County resident. The woman had deposited a $90,000 check into her account on behalf of someone she had never met, raising concerns.
Detectives spoke with the woman, who shared that she had received a phone call from an individual claiming to be her late father’s accountant. “He told me that one of my father’s friends wanted to ‘bless me with money,'” she said.
A few days after the call, she received a $90,000 check from an unknown sender. The PCSD Fraud Unit traced the sender to a 92-year-old man in San Jose, Calif. After speaking with him and his daughter, detectives discovered he had fallen victim to a lottery scam.
The man had been led to believe he had won an $8 million lottery and needed to send the check as a pre-payment for taxes on the supposed winnings.
On January 26, 2026, PCSD Fraud Unit detectives returned the $90,000 to the victim, ensuring that every dollar was recovered and sent back to him.