RESIDENTS TOLD TO BEWARE OF FRAUD SCHEME.

Byline: Erin Gebroe Daily News Staff Writer

Sheriff's deputies are warning residents not to give money to strangers who say they will give people large sums of money in exchange for ``good-faith'' deposits of cash or jewelry.

Once the thieves get someone's money through persuasion and sob stories, they hand the victim a bag, say it contains the promised sum and flee. Instead of containing money, however, the bag is filled with paper.

``If it looks too good to be true, it probably is,'' said sheriff's Deputy Cortland Myers.

Deputies suspect a group of transient thieves is working through the state, recently in Santa Clarita. They prey on the elderly, said Lt. Tim Peters.

``As soon as somebody starts telling you to take money out of your bank, don't do it. It's a scam,'' Peters said. ``Older people are generally the target because they tend to believe people.''

Residents who think they are being targeted should call police as soon as a stranger asks them for money, Peters said.

This latest warning follows an incident in which two men stole $9,500 in cash and two rings worth $4,000 from a 67-year-old Valencia woman.

The woman was shopping Tuesday evening at the Lucky supermarket on Lyons Avenue in Newhall when a man, whom she described as 48 to 50, approached her. He said his mother was dying and he needed help distributing $80,000 of her money to charity, police said.

After showing the shopper large amounts of cash, his accomplice, about 30 years old, walked up and said he wanted to help. The first man said he would pay the two of them $5,000 for helping distribute his mother's money if they gave him some money ``in good faith,'' police said.

The men then drove the shopper to her bank, where she got a $9,500 advance on her credit cards and gave it, along with two rings, to the older man.

They then went to a drugstore to get medicine for the older man, who said he was sick. There, the men gave the woman a bag they said contained her money and jewelry and said they were going to the bathroom.

When they did not return, the woman went outside and saw that the car was gone. She then opened the bag, which contained cut pieces of newspaper, police said.

The thieves, Peters said, ``make thousands of dollars very quickly and then they just move on.''