5 men impersonated bank and public utility workers to defraud at least 150 seniors in Philadelphia, DA says

Five men are charged with impersonating bank or public utility workers to defraud at least 150 seniors in Philadelphia of over $500,000, according to the city's district attorney's office.

Detoine Darryl Davis, Winston A. Haynes, Michael Turner, Anthony Ringgold and Mark Chappell are facing over a dozen charges in connection with the scheme, District Attorney Larry Krasner's office said in a news release.

The five men are accused of defrauding at least 35 victims in Northwest and Southwest Philadelphia since June 2024, Krasner said. The oldest victim is 90 years old.

Krasner said the five men would contact seniors pretending to be either a bank employee or a representative from PECO, PGW or the city's water department and claim there was a problem with their account.

One of the suspects would then go to the victim's home and collect their personal information like bank account numbers, debit cards and PINs, according to a news release. The suspects would then steal money from the victims' accounts and use it for money orders, personal purchases and deposits into their own accounts, the DA's office said.

Krasner said search warrants resulted in seizures of cash, an AR-15 gun, cellphones and computers, bank statements and money order receipts. Accounts that had stolen funds in them were frozen.

The DA's office said others were also involved in the fraud scheme.

Ringgold and Haynes are held on $1.8 million bail and Turner and Chappell are being held on $5.4 million bail.

Davis is in the hospital and awaiting arraignment, according to Krasner.