Galloway Woman Charged In Multi-State Elder Fraud Scheme: Police

GALLOWAY, NJ — A Galloway woman was charged after scamming elderly victims in multiple states out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, police said.

Michelle Mendonca, 42, was charged with fraud, money laundering and theft by deception after police conducted a search warrant on her home, Galloway police said. Police seized $360,000 from the home, determined to be the proceeds from the scam, officials said.

The investigation began when Det. Tim Giberson was told by a Texas police department that an elderly resident had sent a large sum of money to a Galloway address, police said.

This led to the discovery of multiple victims in multiple states, police said.

Galloway police said that they look forward to restoring the money to the victims - some of whom lost their entire life savings in the scam.

Police also issued the following statement.

"The Galloway Township Police Department would like to remind all of our residents, especially the elderly, to be very cautious when solicited to send money over the phone or the internet. State agencies such as the IRS will never solicit monetary payments over the phone or by email and will never ask for payments to be made in cash. As always, if you receive a call and think it is potentially a scam, ask for contact information or a call back number and contact the police."