KAHULUI – Police investigate reports of scams, often involving elderly residents, at least once a week, with numbers on the rise since new reporting requirements took effect last year, said a police detective specializing in the investigation of white collar crimes.

While a “very, very small” percentage of victims recover losses, Detective Leif Adachi said two Maui victims of a “grandparent scam” got their money back after they quickly notified authorities about what happened.

“Tell a family member, friend, caregiver, church leader or social worker,” Detective Teri Nishida told audience members during a presentation Thursday to about 55 people at the senior nutrition program at Kahului Union Church. “Report the incident to police.”

“It can happen to anyone,” Nishida said. “Don’t fall for anything that sounds too good to be true because it is.”

Adachi and Nishida of the police Criminal Investigation Division’s White Collar Crimes Unit discussed some common scams and offered advice to avoid becoming a victim.

When the detectives brought up the grandparent scam, a Wailuku man in the audience described how someone had called his wife, saying he was her grandson and asking the wife to send $2,000 to him in Las Vegas.

Before she went to send the money in $500 increments, the man said he told his wife to call their son. “I’m glad she did because the grandson was home,” he said. “I knew right away it was a scam, but my wife didn’t.”

Adachi said two Maui residents sent off $8,000 each after receiving similar calls reporting their 14-year-old grandsons had been arrested in New York.

On one phone call, a little boy was crying. “It affected her very deeply,” Adachi said.

He said the Haliimaile resident went to the bank and mailed money off to Alabama before talking to her daughter and learning the boy was home. The woman contacted her bank, which couldn’t do anything, and the post office, then called police.

Adachi said police contacted U.S. Postal Service inspectors, who got the money back at the post office in Alabama.

A Kahului woman targeted by the same scam called police right away, Adachi said, and her money was intercepted in Honolulu.

Another victim who called police a week after sending money wasn’t so lucky.

The money went to a New Mexico address, was forwarded to Mexico “and it was gone,” Adachi said.

“The only thing that tied these two families together was grandmas’ names in the phone book,” he said. “So they called random names in the phone book.”

He said United States addresses are used as a forwarding stop for money that often makes its way to Nigeria or Jamaica. If money is still in the U.S., “we can get other department agencies to help out,” Adachi said.

He said romance scams have also targeted Maui residents, with one woman borrowing from friends and family and draining her accounts to send $180,000 to invest in the company of a man who said he was going to marry her.

Nishida has talked to the woman to try to explain it was a scam. But police learned the woman recently borrowed $15,000 from a neighbor to send to the man, Adachi said.

Nishida urged residents to learn more about anything they invest in.

She said a bank called police when a Kihei man took out large sums of money from his account. After talking to the man, police learned he was investing through a website promising “guaranteed results.”

Adachi said police are seeing more scam reports since a law took effect last year requiring financial institutions to report suspected financial abuse of an elder to police. The law also allows reporting to the state Department of Human Services and requires sharing of information with police or the prosecutor’s office.

Sometimes, after investigating, police find a crime hasn’t been committed, Adachi said.

Police have been meeting regularly with Adult Protective Services staff and representatives of financial institutions, said Capt. David Silva, commander of the police Criminal Investigation Division.

“We would like to be more proactive and will be doing a lot of these presentations to educate anyone out there,” Silva said.

Adachi said police plan to do presentations in Hana and hopefully on Lanai and Molokai.

“If we stopped one person from sending money, that’s something,” Adachi said.

Karen Nemoto, coordinator for the senior nutrition program, said the program was informative to let seniors know what’s happening. “They’re so trusting,” she said.

Anyone interested in attending an upcoming presentation can call Nishida or Adachi at the police Criminal Investigation Division at 244-6425.

* Lila Fujimoto can be reached at lfujimoto@mauinews.com.