CHOP employee loses $12K in scam

The 25-year-old fell, victim to a "flim-flam' near 39th and Walnut streets. You're walking down the street, when two people walk up to you with a wad of cash. Is this yours? they ask innocently. You, of course, say no. But they persist. Well, we don't know who it belongs to, they say, offering to split all $100,000 -- yes, $100,000 in cash from a wallet they found -- with you. All you have to do is put up $12,000 of your own money so they know you're not scamming them. Then you'll get it back plus lots more. Sound too good to be true? It is: A 25-year-old woman fell victim to exactly this scheme on Tuesday, police said. University and Philadelphia police are investigating the incident, which began outside the PNC Bank automated teller machines near 39th and Walnut streets and left the victim with an empty bank account and a substantial credit-card debt. Such "flim-flam" schemes -- which involve defrauding a person by deception -- are surprisingly common, University Police Det. William Danks said, although this is the biggest one he has seen on campus. Why would people believe something that sounds so patently false? Danks conjectured that the ones who fall for it say to themselves, "I have a chance to turn my money into big money, and I really don't have to do very much." The victim, a foreign-born employee of the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, was approached by two women at around 11:30 a.m. as she exited the ATM pavilion, Danks said. The women showed her a wallet with what looked like a two-inch pile of cash. When the CHOP employee said it wasn't hers, they generously offered to split the money -- all "$100,000" of it -- three ways. A third person --Ethis one a man who the two women apparently knew -- then showed up, claiming he had a friend who worked at the First Union bank at 40th and Chestnut streets. His friend at the bank could make sure the bills were real, and then they could all rake in the money. So the four of them went to the bank. The victim and the two women waited outside while the man went in and "talked" to his friend. He soon re-emerged, proclaiming that the money was real. But they couldn't just go and split the cash -- the three told the victim they must all put up "good faith" money as collateral, to make sure that none of them is going to cheat the others. Then, they all drove into Center City, where the victim withdrew not just the $3,500 she had in her bank account, but also took out a $9,000 advance on her credit card. They returned to the bank, and asked the victim to wait inside for the friend to divide up the money. And in case you couldn't figure out what comes next, she never saw her "benefactors" again. "It doesn't make sense," Danks said. "It is absurd. But people [fall for] it." In this case, said University Det. Commander Tom King, the perpetrators involved a bank, a smart move intended to make the victim feel more comfortable. "It adds legitimacy," King explained. The victim spent yesterday afternoon at the Philadelphia Police Department's Major Crimes division, looking through mugshots. The women are described as African-Americans in their 30s, both about 5'8" with medium builds. One wore a lot of gold jewelry, police said. The man was described as being in his late 30s, 6' tall and weighing about 200 pounds. They were driving a gold Nissan Altima with Alabama license plates. Danks said it's "difficult to tell" whether the con artists will continue to operate in University City. But in the meantime, police urged students to be wary of such scams.