Five men are charged with impersonating bank or public utility workers to defraud at least 150 seniors in Philadelphia of over $500,000, according to the city’s district attorney’s office.<\/p>\n
Detoine Darryl Davis, Winston A. Haynes, Michael Turner, Anthony Ringgold and Mark Chappell are facing over a dozen charges in connection with the scheme, District Attorney Larry Krasner’s office said in a news release.<\/p>\n
The five men are accused of defrauding at least 35 victims in Northwest and Southwest Philadelphia since June 2024, Krasner said. The oldest victim is 90 years old.<\/p>\n
Krasner said the five men would contact seniors pretending to be either a bank employee or a representative from PECO, PGW or the city’s water department and claim there was a problem with their account.<\/p>\n
One of the suspects would then go to the victim’s home and collect their personal information like bank account numbers, debit cards and PINs, according to a news release. The suspects would then steal money from the victims’ accounts and use it for money orders, personal purchases and deposits into their own accounts, the DA’s office said.<\/p>\n
Krasner said search warrants resulted in seizures of cash, an AR-15 gun, cellphones and computers, bank statements and money order receipts. Accounts that had stolen funds in them were frozen.<\/p>\n
The DA’s office said others were also involved in the fraud scheme.<\/p>\n
Ringgold and Haynes are held on $1.8 million bail and Turner and Chappell are being held on $5.4 million bail.<\/p>\n
Davis is in the hospital and awaiting arraignment, according to Krasner.<\/p>\n
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