{"id":421799,"date":"2026-10-08T01:52:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:52:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421799\/"},"modified":"2026-10-08T01:52:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T01:52:12","slug":"georgia-prison-scam-costs-central-florida-woman-15k-volusia-sheriff-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/421799\/","title":{"rendered":"Georgia prison scam costs Central Florida woman $15K, Volusia sheriff says"},"content":{"rendered":"

VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Georgia woman was taken into custody in Volusia County this week after a local woman lost $15,000 in a warrant scam, according to the sheriff\u2019s office.<\/p>\n

In a release, deputies pinned the suspect \u2014 identified as Vera Faust, 43, of Athens \u2014 as an \u201cassociate\u201d of other scammers in Georgia prisons. <\/p>\n

\u201cShe is related to a scumbag who\u2019s serving life for murder up there,\u201d Sheriff Mike Chitwood said. \u201cAnd her and three other ne\u2019er-do-wells decided they were going to make some phone calls and say they were the Volusia Sheriff\u2019s Office and that there was a warrant out for one of our victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chitwood explained the victim sent $15,000 to scammers, but the Financial Crimes Unit was able to recover nearly all of that money.<\/p>\n

Faust was the second suspect identified in this scam, with the first \u2014 Annie Ashley, 61, from Georgia \u2014 being arrested just last week, jail records show.<\/p>\n

\"\"Annie Lee Ashley, 61, of East Dublin, Georgia (Volusia County Jail)<\/p>\n

On Wednesday, Chitwood announced a third suspect \u2014 Sharod Poellnitz, 18, from Stockbridge, Georgia \u2014 had turned himself in. <\/p>\n

He faces a charge of principal to organized scheme to defraud, and his father is serving a life sentence at Wheeler Correctional Institute for murder, the sheriff added.<\/p>\n

\"\"Sharod R. Poellnitz, 18, of Stockbridge, Georgia (Volusia County Jail)<\/p>\n

Faust faces a similar charge of principal to organized scheme to defraud.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve said it before, and I\u2019ll say it again: this Wheeler Correctional Institute, where people are serving life in prison or significant portions of their life prison, have access to cell phones and iPads,\u201d Chitwood explained. \u201cAnd all they do is make these phone calls, telling people there\u2019s a warrant out for their arrest or they missed jury duty or whatever it may be.\u201d<\/p>\n

Chitwood also emphasized actual law enforcement officers don\u2019t operate by these methods.<\/p>\n

However, if anyone has doubts about whether the person on the other end of the line is legit, he urges to hang up and call the Volusia Sheriff\u2019s Office to confirm.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WKMG ClickOrlando – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. \u2013 A Georgia woman was taken into custody in Volusia County this week after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[28,30,29,1853,2159,5854,2546,2261],"class_list":["post-421799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-florida","tag-florida","tag-florida-headlines","tag-florida-news","tag-georgia","tag-money","tag-scams","tag-strange-florida","tag-volusia-county"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}