LAFOURCHE PARISH, La. (WGNO) — The Lafourche Parish Sheriff’s Office (LPSO) recovered more than $140,000 that had been stolen from a Larose woman after a phone scam.

According to LPSO officials, the woman received a call from someone claiming to be a special agent with the Social Security Administration. The scammer told the woman she had to wire large sums of money to a bank account.

The woman wired $93,000 the first day, and the next day she was told to wire $50,000. Investigations determined the woman had wired a total of $143,000 and of that amount, the sheriff’s office was able to recover $122,000.

Further investigation led detectives to the scammer’s bank account, and they obtained a seizure and search warrant. Results are still pending.

Lafourche Parish Sheriff Craig Webre says the victim was extremely lucky because in most cases, the money is not easy to recover, if it is recovered at all.

“This is due to a variety of reasons including the fact that these calls typically originate out of state or even out of the country. Even being able to recover the amount we did in this case, the victim still lost over $23,000 which may never be recovered. We implore residents to stop and think before they ever wire money to anyone,” said Webre.

Learn more about scams on the LPSO’s website.

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