MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A father got an urgent call from a man who said he was an attorney: his son had been in an accident and he needed to send $12,000 cash in order to have him released from jail.
But police say the Miami-Dade dad was skeptical — and for good reason — the call was a scam.
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That led officers to arrest a woman Wednesday.
According to a Miami-Dade police arrest report, the would-be victim gathered information from the unidentified “attorney” and contacted his son, who was not, in fact, in jail.
That led the man to call police.
According to police, the purported lawyer ”provided specific instructions on how to package the money within envelopes and advised he was going to send a courier to pick up the money.”
The courier soon arrived and instead of being met by the man the scammers thought was their mark, he was met by a MDPD detective, according to the report.
The courier told police he was a legitimate Lyft driver delivering a package to the Intercontinental Hotel in downtown Miami, the report states.
Police said the detective went to the hotel in place of the courier and was immediately flagged down by a woman named “Jiji,” who was the recipient of the package, according to the Lyft app.
“Jiji” was actually Luisa Maria Santos Burgos, 33, a clinical nurse who lives in Homestead, the report states.
Police said she allowed officers to search her vehicle. They found “several bank receipts depicting large deposits and (withdrawals),” investigators wrote.
Authorities said she also allowed investigators to search her phone.
The report states they found “several photos of the crime, such as a photo of the specific instructions the unidentified male posing as the attorney provided prior victims.”
“Furthermore, (officers found) several voice messages regarding large money transfers between (Santos Burgos) and unknown individuals,” the report states. “Upon confronting (her) regarding the bank (receipts) located within her vehicle, she was unable to provide an explanation of the transfers.”
Police arrested Santos Burgos, a Dominican national, on felony charges of organized scheme to defraud, extortion, unlawful use of a communications device, communications fraud and grand theft.
She was then taken to the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, where she was being held on an $8,000 bond.
It’s not clear if police have identified or arrested any additional suspects.