Woman Gets Prison Time After Scamming Own Grandma for More Than $300K

A Florida woman has been sentenced to prison after scamming her grandmother out of more than $300,000, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Southern District of Illinois Office.

Tanya M. Aboseada, of Pompano Beach, FL, was sentenced on Sept. 23 to three years in prison. Aboseada, 39, previously pled guilty in May to 12 charges of wire fraud. The younger woman convinced her grandmother, an Illinois resident, "to wire money into her bank account under false pretenses on at least 12 occasions between November 2021 and August 2022,” totaling $317,049.

The ruses Aboseada used on her grandmother included "needing money to transfer a truck title into her name, owing money to the IRS, paying attorney fees and fines for a vehicular accident she was in, and paying the family of an alleged child she killed in a vehicular accident to avoid going to jail."

In addition to her prison sentence, Aboseada was ordered to pay back the full amount in restitution. The case was brought forth as part of the Department of Justice’s Eder Justice Initiative, which aims to "combat elder abuse, neglect, and financial fraud, and scams that target our nation’s older adults."

“The fraud perpetrated by Tanya Aboseada relied on the love and devotion of a family member, which is in many ways more heartless than when the perpetrator is a stranger,” FBI agent Christopher Johnson said. “The FBI upholds an unwavering commitment to deliver justice to victims of elder fraud, and to prioritize the pursuit of those who deliberately target vulnerable seniors.”

“Older Americans are too often the target of scammers who hide behind computer screens while stealing money,” FBI agent David Nanz added. “But criminals who steal the hard-earned life savings of their own family members demonstrate an even greater disregard for this vulnerable population."