Orlando Man Arrested in Fraud Scheme Targeting New Smyrna Beach Resident

An Orlando man was arrested last week in connection with a fraud scheme targeting an elderly New Smyrna Beach resident, police announced. 27-year-old Marcus Ristie is accused of posing as the victim’s son to convince her to send money. According to the New Smyrna Beach Police Department, Ristie contacted the victim saying he was her son and was in a ‘serious traffic crash that resulted in a death’. Ristie allegedly told the victim he needed her to send $9,800 so he could get out of jail. The calls continued, but the stories were said to have changed. Ristie later reportedly claimed to be an attorney, someone representing a pretrial intervention program, and more. On the latter of those calls, Ristie was said to have given instructions for withdrawing money and preparing for it to be picked up from the victim’s home. Before giving any money, the victim called the police on Thursday about this series of calls. After getting in touch with law enforcement, Ristie called again and reportedly had an Uber driver come to pick up an envelope of cash. Police who were working with the victim discovered the Uber driver was legitimate and not a co-conspirator in the fraud scheme. Police tracked the collection of this envelope and its delivery to Orlando. Here, Ristie was said to have received it. This was enough to obtain an arrest warrant, which was served by the Orlando Police Department later in the day Thursday. Ristie has been charged with organized scheme to defraud and was booked into jail in Orange County on an out-of-county warrant. He has no prior arrests on record in Volusia County’s database. Ristie’s bond was set at $20,000.