Darien Photographer Falls Victim To Check Fraud Scheme: Cops

DARIEN, CT — Local police are investigating a check fraud case where a Darien man was bilked out of $1,800 by scammers who pretended to want to rent his drone for photography work, according to Darien police.

The incident began in June when the victim and a friend were approached by a man while they were flying the victim's photography drone in Greenwich.

"During the conversation, the [victim] mentioned that he was a photographer," wrote Darien police in a statement. "The male [suspect] stated he owned a production company in NYC, and was looking for production assistants. The [victim] gave the male his business card, and the male stated his assistant 'Meg'
would be contacting him. On June 24th the complainant received a text message from a woman [impersonating] herself as Megan O'Neill. [The person impersonating] O'Neill told him that she worked for Elle Magazine and that she wanted to hire the complainant as a photographer for an upcoming photo-shoot in New Orleans. The two exchanged several emails, some of which were requests for personal information in regards to the hiring of the complainant.

"On June 29th the complainant was sent an email stating that a check had been sent to him and would be delivered that day. The check was for the amount of $1980.00. The complainant stated that $1,550.00 was to be sent to a travel agent, and the remaining $450.00 was his down payment from the company. The complainant stated that [the person impersonating] O'Neill would constantly be texting him, inquiring about if the check had been deposited. The complainant deposited the check about a week after receiving it.

"On July 7th the complainant was again contacted by [the person impersonating] O'Neill, this time asking for him to withdraw the $1,550.00 as cash and deposit it into an account at Bank of America, which he did at a branch in Norwalk. [The person impersonating] O'Neill also asked the complainant to send her a receipt of the transaction. On July 9th the complainant was contacted again explaining that there was a miscalculation with the payment. He was requested to 'MoneyGram' $300.00 to a person in Indiana. It was Sunday and the banks were closed, so he did not find anything suspicious about it. The complainant then sent [the person impersonating] O'Neill the receipt of the transaction, at which point he stopped receiving any response from [the person impersonating] O'Neill."

Three days later, while getting gas, the victim discovered his bank card was not working, and after checking his account he discovered that the check he was sent by [the person impersonating] O'Neill had bounced and that he was $1,800.00 in debt, according to police.

"Officers attempted to contact the people with whom the complainant interacted, with negative results," wrote Darien police, adding that the department's Detective Division is continuing to investigate the case.

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