Casa Grande – A 50-year-old fraudster, Yokmanee Juhl, has been arrested by Casa Grande Police as a result of an ongoing Fraudulent Schemes investigation that began with a Florida based victim who filed a Fraudulent Schemes report with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC).
Juhl was arrested without incident on April 23rd at her residence in the 1000 block of North Arizola Road in Casa Grande. Juhl was booked into the Pinal County Adult Detention Center and charges of Felony Theft and Fraudulent Schemes are being forwarded to the Pinal County Attorney’s Office for review.
The victim contacted Casa Grande Police because Juhl used a local address to receive money from them. Other victims were later identified from various states to include Massachusetts, Washington, Illinois and Idaho.
During this complex investigation, investigators were able to discover a total of 12 victims who sent Juhl nearly a total of $110,000.00 in various forms of checks. Juhl also received more than $7,000.00 in cash and an expectation of $11,000.00 more cash to arrive since the date of her arrest. Additionally, Juhl was sent and unsuccessfully deposited nearly $74,000.00 in checks that did not fund.
In each of the incidents, the victims were contacted via social media from accounts appearing to be of relatives or friends. The victims were advised that their friends or relatives were recipients of some form of cash prize or grant and they were encouraged to contact an agent via telephone, either text or call, to inquire if they are eligible for a cash prize as well. During the course of the conversation with the “agent” behind the number provided by the created social media account, the victims are requested to send various payments to our suspect Yokmanee Juhl, who in turn would deposit the checks and convert it to cash withdraw as soon as the funds were available. Associates of Juhl have not been identified yet.
Although at this time none of the victims identified during this investigation are Arizona residents, please contact your local law enforcement agency if you believe you may have been a victim of a Fraudulent Scheme. This remains an open and ongoing investigation.
Casa Grande Police offer the following tips to avoid being scammed:
- Protect yourself by practicing caution when communicating with people via social media or online systems.
- Verify who you are communicating with when money or valuable assets are at risk. Hacked or duplicated social media accounts provide easy arenas for criminals to conduct their business. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
- Remember, if you feel your accounts may have been compromised, log out and change the passwords.