5 Sentenced In National 'Grandparent Scam' That Began On Cape Cod

ORLEANS, MA — Five people have received sentences for a nationwide "grandparent scam" with origins on Cape Cod.

Orleans police officials said the scam, which the U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Indiana, said accounted for $683,464 in losses for nearly 70 victims, began on the Cape. Now, defendants from Georgia, New York and Florida will spend years behind bars.

Five people were sentenced in February after each pled guilty to mail fraud and money laundering charges, officials said.

"With the amount of scams that we are all exposed to on a regular basis, it’s nice when justice is served," Orleans police said.

They continued:

"Back in 2020, the Orleans Police Department was involved in the nationwide ‘Grandparent Scam.’ This case originated in Orleans and information was shared with Indianapolis Metro Police Department, who played a major role with these convictions. Working together with multiple agencies throughout the nation, we’re happy to announce that all involved have been convicted and given a prison sentence."

According to court documents, from at least April 2020 and continuing for roughly 11 months, the defendants and other co-conspirators targeted and exploited the elderly and their relationships with their relatives for personal financial gain.

Known as a “grandparent scam,” the criminal network "exploited elderly Americans’ love for their family members making them believe a close relative was in extreme danger and inducing them to send thousands of dollars to 'help,'" officials said.

The defendants’ role in the scheme was to retrieve, transport, and launder the money the elderly victims were induced to send. The defendants traveled to cities throughout the United States to identify unoccupied houses where overnight packages could be sent and retrieved without detection and then relay those addresses to their co-conspirators.

Those co-conspirators then placed phone calls to seniors in Indiana and around the country claiming that their grandchild or other relative had an urgent legal or medical problem and needed money immediately.

The caller, who often claimed to be an attorney, police officer, or another authority figure, told the victim to send an overnight delivery of cash—typically between $5,000 and $15,000—to the address the defendants provided.

The defendants tracked the overnight package of cash to the address, picked it up shortly after delivery, and then took their cut of the proceeds before sharing it with their co-conspirators.

Each defendant was ordered to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars in restitution to the victims for their roles in the scheme, and each was ordered to serve between one and three years of supervised release following their release from prison.

The sentences are as follows:

• Darlens Renard, 78 months
• Jasaun Pope, 97 months
• Princess Elizer, 41 months
• Jennifer Glemeau, 30 months
• Kareem Brown, 36 months