{"id":20829,"date":"2014-02-17T11:27:28","date_gmt":"2014-02-17T16:27:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=20829"},"modified":"2014-02-17T11:27:54","modified_gmt":"2014-02-17T16:27:54","slug":"international-flimflam-artist-in-custody-says-d-a","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/?p=20829","title":{"rendered":"International flimflam artist in custody, says D.A."},"content":{"rendered":"

Man of multiple addresses accused of bilking elderly East Caln resident<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h1>\n
\n

By Kathleen Brady Shea<\/strong><\/span>,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Jack<\/a>

Jack Mayer<\/p><\/div>\n

In 2010, an 84-year-old East Caln Township resident was contacted by telephone and informed that he had just won $3.5 million through a lottery, initiating one of multiple, cross-country scams that led to the caller\u2019s international flight to avoid prosecution, Chester County District Attorney Tom Hogan said.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Hogan said Jack Mayer, 42, an Italian native whose addresses have included Florida, England, France, and the Dominican Republic, is now in custody at Chester County Prison, thanks to the diligence of Downingtown Police and cooperation from U.S. authorities in the Dominican Republic, where Mayer was located and deported.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis defendant was preying on elderly and vulnerable victims. \u00a0His crimes are appalling, and his flight was further evidence of his consciousness of guilt,\u201d said Hogan. \u00a0\u201cWe would have gone to the moon to bring this defendant to justice. \u00a0We will not allow con artists to target the older citizens of Chester County.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan said that after the East Caln resident was notified of his win, he was instructed to send cashier\u2019s checks to an account to cover taxes and fees, then the $3.5 million would be released. The caller gave the victim the names of alleged representatives of the IRS and Federal Trade Commission (FTC) as contacts. \u00a0The caller claimed to work for Town & Country, Inc., a sweepstakes company, and the caller gave the victim a website to check, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

The victim sent a total of $262,035 in cashier\u2019s checks to the account requested. \u00a0The caller then requested an additional $224,000, at which point the victim reported the activity to the Downingtown Police Department, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

Downingtown Police Officer Paul Trautmann began to investigate the matter and determined that the IRS and FTC representatives provided to the victim were fictitious; the website used as a front belonged to Town and Country Magazine, which had no relationship to any lottery; and the account to which the victim had been sending money was registered to Mayer and linked to another account used by him in Miami, Fla., the criminal complaint said.<\/p>\n

Chester County authorities froze Mayer\u2019s accounts and executed a search warrant on them, Hogan said. \u00a0The police discovered that multiple other elderly victims around the United States, including a 91-year-old man from North Carolina and an 88-year-old man from Texas, had been taken in by the defendant\u2019s scheme, Hogan said. The victims were defrauded of at least $1 million, Hogan said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is an excellent example of law enforcement working together both nationally and internationally,\u201d said Downingtown Police Chief James R. McGowan. \u00a0\u201cOur officers and prosecutors worked diligently with their counterparts to bring the defendant back to Chester County to face charges. They should be commended for their professionalism and perseverance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hogan said he believes other victims exist outside the county\u2019s jurisdiction.\u00a0\u201cWe will take care of the crimes committed in Chester County,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u201cI will forward this matter to federal authorities for them to look at crimes outside of Chester County.\u201d\u00a0 Anybody with information is asked to contact the Downingtown Police Department at 610-269-0263 or the Chester County Detectives at 610-692-5100.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Man of multiple addresses accused of bilking elderly East Caln resident By Kathleen Brady Shea,\u00a0Managing Editor, The Times In 2010, an 84-year-old East Caln Township resident was contacted by telephone and informed that he had just won $3.5 million through a lottery, initiating one of multiple, cross-country scams that led to the caller\u2019s international flight […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":20830,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,317],"tags":[1961,5002,5003,1775,5004],"class_list":["post-20829","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-region","tag-chester-county-district-attorney-tom-hogan","tag-downingtown-police-chief-james-r-mcgowan","tag-downingtown-police-officer-paul-trautmann","tag-east-caln-township","tag-jack-mayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20829"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20829\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20830"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20829"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20829"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unionvilletimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20829"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}