On February 19, 2025, Volusia County Sheriff Mike Chitwood arrested 25-year-old New York resident Shania Baptiste for serving as a money mule for a PCH scam that tricked 85-year-old Sarah from Daytona Beach Shores out of $32,500 this past June. How the scam worked was:
- The scammers would call their victim under the guise of the Publisher’s Clearing House and falsely claim they won a million dollars.
- The victim, however, would be asked to withdraw $20,000 from their bank account in order to pay “taxes,” with the scammers even going as far as to tell the victim to lie and claim it was for “kitchen renovations.”
- The scammers will then demand an additional $12,500 to cover a supposed “tax debt.”
While Baptiste denies any involvement in the scheme, she wasn’t alone as co-conspirator Nelson Brooks turned himself in on February 15, 2025 only to be bonded out 3 hours later, and there is believed to be one more individual involved. Police were fortunately able to recover $20,000 and give it back to Sarah and will likely return the rest of the money after a court case.