Minnesota man arrested in $50,000 phone scam of Cherokee County resident

Jan. 26—COLUMBUS, Mo. — Authorities in Minnesota have arrested a suspect in a phone scam that duped a Cherokee County resident out of $50,000.

The Cherokee County Sheriff's Department said in a news release that Richard R. Coles, 55, of Burnsville, Minnesota, was taken into custody there on Tuesday as the consequence of a monthlong investigation by Cherokee County detectives.

Kohl is being held in the Dakota County Jail in Minnesota pending extradition to Kansas.

The arrest was effected with the help of Minnesota law enforcement after Cherokee County investigators managed to identify him as a suspect in the bilking of a local resident out of almost $50,000 in a phone scam he ran between October and December.

"With this particular case, the suspect is alleged to have posed as a representative of a sweepstakes, telling the victim a prize had been won but taxes had to first be paid prior to it being awarded," Sheriff David Groves said in a news release Friday.

The sheriff warned that such phone scams often target seniors who need to be wary of anyone calling and claiming they have won a prize that they have to pay something off before they can collect.

Jeff Lehr is a reporter for The Joplin Globe.