Sam’s Town Employee Tricked Into Handing Over $750K to Fake Attorney: Report

Posted on: August 8, 2024, 04:27h. 

Last updated on: August 8, 2024, 10:12h.

Ed Silverstein @casinoorgedsilv Read More
Expertise: Legal, Tribal Gaming.

A 36-year-old woman remains behind bars on Thursday after a scheme where a Las Vegas casino employee was deceived into delivering $750K to a con artist.

Sam's Town Hotel & Gambling Hall
Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall, pictured above. A casino employee was tricked into handing over money. (Image: TripAdvisor)

Rosa Barria was arrested last Friday on a theft charge for the 2023 deception targeting a Sam’s Town Hotel & Gambling Hall worker, according to Las Vegas TV station KLAS.

Barria was being held in the Clark County Detention Center. Her bail was set at $30K. She’s scheduled to next appear in court on August 20.

The incident happened over a year ago on June 8, 2023. A worker at the Sam’s Town cashier’s cage got a call from someone identifying as an attorney for the casino.

Fake Attorney, UPS Worker

The fake attorney claimed a UPS worker would make a delivery and then need to get $750K for payment. The casino employee was told to bring the loot to a location in North Las Vegas.

The casino worker believed the caller and also got text messages related to the deception.

The Sam’s Town employee scooped up the money and drove eight miles to a business in North Las Vegas. When she arrived, she was met by two individuals, one of whom pretended to be the lawyer.

The casino employee handed over the cash and drove back to the gaming property. She became increasingly concerned about what she had done and told a supervisor “she may have just fallen for a scam,” KLAS reported, quoting court documents.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) was alerted.

The exact role played by Barria in the scheme is unclear. It’s also unclear if a second suspect has been charged.

Prior Incidents

Similar incidents have taken place in Nevada and elsewhere. In March 2023 a cashier’s cage supervisor at Las Vegas’ Circa Hotel & Casino gathered $250K and drove with the money to pay someone for a large amount of hand sanitizer. The two met at a gas station.

The man collecting the cash was identified as Erik Gutierrez Martinez, 25. He later was sentenced to one year in jail for deceiving still another casino employee into handing over $1M.

A Circa cashier’s cage worker also got a call from someone who said he was the hotel owner. The employee was concurrently getting texts from her manager. All of the communications later turned out to be fake.

The worker was told to bring $320K for a payment for fire equipment. The employee gathered up cash and by the time the incident was over four payments were delivered to scammers at different locations. The total was more than $1.1 million, KLAS reported.

Officers were able to recover about $850K of the casino’s money.

In still another incident, Danika Young, 38, of Coloma, Mich., a cage supervisor at Michigan’s Four Winds Hartford Casino, took $700K from the gaming property.

A caller told her to bring the money to a location in Gary, Ind. She did and was charged with embezzlement by an employee of $100K or more, according to Michigan TV station WOOD. The charge was later dropped.

Last year, concerns about these incidents led the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) and the National Indian Gaming Commission (NIGC) to issue warnings to casinos about the scams.

The scam sometimes uses artificial intelligence, officials have revealed.