Man sentenced for defrauding elderly city resident

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Man sentenced for defrauding elderly city resident
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By Missy Schrott | mschrott@alextimes.com

An Arizona man who defrauded elderly victims, including a 94-year-old Alexandria resident, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on Friday, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Virginia.

Raheem Oliver, 38, used a magazine scam to defraud about 350 elderly victims, including several Virginia residents, out of more than $640,000.

The fraud scam involved Oliver or one of his associates contacting magazine subscribers and offering to renew their subscriptions over the phone. When the victims agreed, he would then double or triple charge their accounts, according to the release.

Oliver targeted those particularly vulnerable to the scam, primarily elderly people, by threatening them with legal action and arrest unless they paid thousands of dollars at a time by mailing checks or wiring money to him and his accomplices in Arizona.

“Not content to simply deceive his victims, Oliver would badger and threaten his victims to extort even more money from them. This conduct is depraved in its own way and hopefully there will be some relief to the victims and their loved ones knowing that Oliver won’t be in a position to harm anyone else,” G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, said in a statement.

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