How a 4-word text message lured a Sun City woman into a costly investment scam
“Do you remember me?”
That was the fateful text an 80-year-old woman from Sun City Hilton Head received from an unknown number nearly a year ago, she told police on Friday.
The ensuing conversation would lead the Beaufort County resident to an investment website that later appeared to block access to $309,000 in her account, according to her statements documented in a sheriff’s office incident report for fraud.
After receiving the short text message in July 2025, she responded to the person — who identified himself as Vincent Rothschild — and the two began having “frequent conversations,” the report says.
They began discussing investments, the woman told police, and Vincent convinced her to check out a specific investing website. After investing small amounts and withdrawing some funds, she got a promotion offer that claimed to double any deposit above a certain threshold, according to the police report.
But the investment platform would later lock her out of her account, which listed a balance of hundreds of thousands of dollars, she told police. She was no longer able to contact Vincent.
Lt. Daniel Allen, a spokesperson for the Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office, said the case appeared to be a familiar type of investment scam that preys on victims’ trust. Since the website was likely a fake that fraudsters could manipulate at will, Allen said, deputies were unsure how much of the woman’s own funds were mixed in with the listed $309,000 balance she reported losing access to. The 80-year-old told deputies she did not intend to seek reimbursement through her bank but wanted the incident documented for tax purposes. She was encouraged to report the loss to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, according to the police report.
Investment scams often begin with an unsolicited private message from a fraudster pretending to be an old friend, according to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The scammer then builds up a relationship with the victim over a period of weeks or months, eventually offering financial advice and steering them toward a phony investment platform. These websites can look legitimate but are often skilled reproductions of real brokerage firms’ webpages, the SEC says.
This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 1:53 PM.
