PINECREST, Fla. – Billions of dollars have been awarded to people who claimed they developed cancer after using weed killer Roundup. A southwest Miami-Dade woman is accused of stealing from one of them.
Authorities say Marie Alexander Pinckombe, who lives in the Hammocks area, used email trickery in order to redirect a senior’s $58,138 settlement check to her Pinecrest bank account.
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It’s not clear if or how Pinckombe, 48, knew the woman, whose age isn’t specified in a Pinecrest Police Department arrest report.
The report states that in October 2022 the victim had asked a St. Petersburg law firm, which was handling the settlement, to send her check to her credit union account.
A paralegal at that firm received an email on Oct. 27 that appeared to be from the victim, it states.
According to police, it said “we changed our wire transfer information today,” asking the firm to “kindly wire” the money to a new location: the PNC Bank branch at 10207 S. Dixie Highway.
Police said the senior’s actual email address was tied to a website connected to her business: “(first initial)(last name)@(business name).com”
But they said the paralegal didn’t notice one crucial detail: the wire request came from “(first initial)(last name)@(business name).onmicrosoft.com”
The firm wired the money into the account, which Pinckombe opened in 2020, the arrest report states.
By Nov. 7, when the firm learned that the victim had no such PNC Bank account and recalled the wire transfer, Pinckombe had already spent $29,376 of her money, police said.
Over the span of a week, police said Pinckombe sent someone an $18,000 cashier’s check, made a $2,301 rent payment for her apartment, sent herself $2,000 on Cash App, spent $1,000 at Publix, paid a $118 cellphone bill and spent $107 at a Bath & Body Works, among other expenses.
Pinckombe turned herself in to Pinecrest police on Tuesday on charges of theft from an elderly person, organized scheme to defraud and depositing a worthless check with intent to defraud.
She was being held in the Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center on a $4,500 bond as of Wednesday afternoon, according to jail records.