Port Orange, FL - An elderly man has been arrested and charged with organized scheme to defraud after being accused of playing a role in a nationwide series of scams that date back to 2021.
Police say 81-year-old Bobby Crosby was booked on Thursday following an investigation by the Port Orange Police Department, which received reports from other law enforcement agencies across the country regarding victims of scams in Massachusetts, California, and Michigan.
According to Crosby's arrest affidavit, the scams involved victims sending money or gift cards through the mail or payment sites such as Venmo after being persuaded by scammers who pretended to be family members or falsely claimed that the victims owed money.
In April of 2021, law enforcement agencies were able to track shipments to Crosby's home in Port Orange, where he lived with his wife.
When confronted by police, Crosby admitted to receiving money and other items from victims through the mail for about a year, but claimed he did not know who was behind the scams.
He stated that he was receiving the money on behalf of a woman he had met through Facebook Messenger the year prior.
Detectives explained that Crosby had been depositing "most of the money" he received into his local bank account, and then withdrawing the money to forward to Bitcoin accounts provided by the Facebook Messenger contact.
Crosby claimed that he asked police several times for the address of one of the victims so that he could return their money, but police were unable to provide him with the information due to the ongoing investigation.
Crosby was not arrested at that time, however police returned to Crosby's home the following month for another discussion, during which Crosby admitted to receiving tens of thousands of dollars in cash, checks, money orders, gift cards, electronics, furniture, and toys over the past year.
Crosby stated that he forwarded much of the money, but was allowed to keep a "modest fee."
Further investigations revealed that Crosby had likely been scammed himself by online Bitcoin "investors" who had convinced him to send them approximately $285,000 over the course of the prior two years.
In September of 2022, police in Texas contacted Port Orange police regarding another fraud case in which a victim had sent $6,700 in cash to Crosby's home after being falsely promised a big prize.
Crosby was interviewed again in October of 2022, during which he revealed that his wife had passed away and that he was now forced to sell his house due to financial troubles.
Crosby admitted to receiving packages from victims, but again stated that he did not know who was conducting the scams.
However, the arrest affidavit showed that Crosby was continuing to forward the money he received to someone else via Bitcoin transactions, just as he had done the year prior.
He claimed that he had found someone on a dating website who was responsible for sending him the funds, and that the account had told him they had received an inheritance and wanted to move in with him.
Text messages between Crosby and the account showed that he had forwarded thousands of dollars he received in the mail from fraud victims, even as his financial condition worsened.
In the months that followed, investigators discovered that the individuals Crosby had been forwarding money to were based in Nigeria.
It was revealed that Crosby had transferred over $634,000 between June 16th, 2020 and December 17th, 2022.
As a result, Crosby was arrested and booked on Thursday on a charge of organized scheme to defraud.
He's being held on a $50,000 bond.