The lakeside area is once again being targeted by scam artists who employ the telephone and wily psychological tactics to talk unwary victims into opening their pocketbooks.
One expat resident was conned out of 10,000 pesos last week after receiving a distress call from a person she presumed to be a Mexican acquaintance. Speaking in fluent accented English, the caller claimed to be stuck at the Guadalajara Airport in urgent need of cash to get out of a jam with customs authorities. The target fell for the ruse, making a cash deposit at a local Oxxo store to an account number provided by the caller. A short time later, after ascertaining that the friend was not in trouble at all, she realized she had been tricked by someone else.
The victim reported the incident to her attorney who revealed that an elderly foreign resident fell for a similar ploy several days earlier. In that case, staff at an Ajijic investment firm dissuaded their client from making a substantial withdrawal after realizing she had been set up in a fraudulent scheme. The target had been called by a supposed friend asking for money to resolve a serious predicament that cropped up while en route to visit the area.
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