Clearwater Police make rare arrest and raise public awareness about elder fraud

By Joey Lachman

(Published 04/16/24)

TAMPA- A Clearwater man was arrested on the first of the month after scamming an elderly woman out of 60,000 dollars according to Clearwater Police. In less than a month 48-year-old Lupin Pathak had coerced an elderly victim that they had committed crimes in other countries and needed to pay to avoid being taken into custody. Police say a friend of the victim reached out to start the investigation.

Unfortunately, this is not a one-off type of case.  According to the FBI’s elder fraud report from 2022 close to 89,000 elder fraud cases occurred with the average victim losing a little over 35,000 dollars. Because elder fraud or scams targeting the elderly population have been becoming more popular it begs the question, what can we do to avoid this happening to our loved ones? After a press conference with Rob Shaw, Public Information Officer for Clearwater Police Department, we learned more about the case and elder fraud prevention.

“The suspect did not act alone,” says Shaw. “These people prey on the vulnerability of a very fragile segment of our population.” says Shaw.

The major steps to take to prevent elder fraud from happening to your loved ones are communicating the things to avoid, establishing judgment-free communication, and talking regularly about things they may have encountered.

“Just having conversations and being open with each other about the potential dangers and things to avoid. If you don’t know the number, don’t answer the phone.” Says Shaw.

In most cases, the incident is not reported until a long time after the fact. Clearwater police say an arrest in elder fraud cases is very rare. Many times, the victim is embarrassed and keeps it to themselves for a long time and sometimes forever.

In this case, it was a friend of a victim who called Clearwater Police and started the investigation, which led to the arrest. That is why communication and judgment-free communication especially, are so important because they can prevent or help resolve an elder fraud case.

There are many public resources dedicated to combating the issue like websites to report issues or to find information on prevention. The Clearwater Police Department also has a fraud prevention hotline at 567-275-6242.