'He was looking for connection': Florida man allegedly exploited 92-year-old man’s isolation, loneliness to scam him out of $800K — all while already behind bars for scheme targeting seniors

Otiz Swinton Jr. was arrested in Orlando on April 30 and has been charged with multiple counts of fraud. This isn’t the first time he’s been linked to a criminal case involving seniors.

Here’s what happened, and what you can do to avoid becoming a victim of a romance scam.

Senior citizens targeted

Swinton Jr. was already serving a prison sentence when he initiated contact with his victim, police say.

"Seven years ago, he was convicted of stealing more than $1 million from more than 50 people in Sun City Center," Granit said.

According to Fox 13, police say that offense involved the scammer telling seniors they had fraudulent charges on their credit cards and needed to mail the cards to him to resolve the problem.

In this latest incident, police say the victim transferred money from his Fidelity account into his Wells Fargo account. The funds were allegedly withdrawn to multiple individuals via a cryptocurrency platform, peer-to-peer transactions, ATM withdrawals and other methods.

From March 13 to April 2, five counterfeit checks were allegedly made payable to Swinton Jr. from the victim’s bank account, totaling $14,300, while over $5,000 in charges were made on the victim’s card. Fox 13 reports the suspect had just been released from jail at the time.

Police say the victim was targeted as early as June 2022.