Two alleged scammers accused of bilking an elderly man out of thousands of dollars in cash are now jailed in White County.
Brandon Massey, 23, and Jamal Davis, 28, both of New York, were transferred to the White County Detention Center from other facilities. They were arrested in a sting operation last September after trying to pull off the same scam on an elderly couple in Hall County.
According to White County authorities, the two men were part of a scheme to steal money from grandparents, convincing them it was bail money for their grandchildren.
An 81-year-old grandfather in White County fell for the scheme and handed over $12,000 in cash to someone he believed was a courier for a bondsman. Massey and Davis served as fake couriers, going to people’s homes to collect the cash, law enforcement says. When the grandfather later called his granddaughter to see if she’d been released, she told him she had not been in jail.
Deputies arrested Massey and Davis when they went to the Hall County couple’s home to collect ‘bail money’ from them.
Officials said at the time that the FBI and IRS traced the scammer’s base of operations to New Jersey and New York. The scheme reached as far west as Nebraska.
Both Davis and Massey are charged with theft by deception and exploiting the elderly. They’re in the White County jail on a $20,000 bond each.
