Police are looking for a woman who stole more than $7,000 from banks in Maryland by posing as the account holder and who they suspect is a part of the “Wig Lady” embezzlement schemes that have hit the region over the past three years.
SunTrust Bank told police in December 2006 that a woman in her 40s or 50s entered branches of the bank in Rockville and Bowie in November and made withdrawals from the account of a woman whose identity the police are withholding.
The suspect, who police said bank surveillance captured wearing glasses and hair “which looked very much like a wig,” authorities said, is suspected of being connected to the larger “Wig Lady” scam. In the “Wig Lady” scam, women victimized by pickpockets had their bank accounts looted by thieves wearing wigs and accessories.
Montgomery County police do not consider this the work of a copycat, police spokeswoman Lucille Baur said.
“After talking to police in other jurisdictions, we have more reason to believe that this is a continuation or re-emergence of this original scheme,” Baur said.
The scheme has resulted in the theft of at least $300,000 from women from Maryland and the District. While authorities made two arrests in the case last year, they say the alleged ringleader, Charles Belim of Boston, remains at large.
