Elderly Lacey Woman Scammed Out Of $12,000

It's a familiar scam, repeated often over the past several years.

But unfortunately the elderly Lacey woman hadn't heard about it when a man with a foreign accent called her on July 1 and told her he was a friend of her son-in-law, Police Chief David A. Paprota said.

The man told her to buy $12,000 worth of iTunes gift cards over the next two days from various stores. The woman then gave the suspect the gift card numbers. The suspect told her he was going to barter a deal to get her son-in-law out of jail, the chief said.

"The Lacey Township Police Department encourages any resident to contact our agency if they suspect they are being victimized by a person attempting to commit a fraud," Paprota said.