CHICAGO — You may remember James Lyons, the 37-year-old who’s accused of transferring money to himself after commandeering a victim’s phone in Wrigleyville.
Lyons is sitting in the county jail today, accused of doing the exact same thing in Wrigleyville while on pretrial release in the pending case. Today, a judge will decide whether to keep Lyons in jail or send him home to await his trial(s).
The ruse Lyons is accused of running is one of the hottest scams in Chicago: Schemers pretending to collect money for a charity or a sickly relative agree to take a small donation via a victim’s banking app. When the target takes out their phone, the scammer takes control of the device and transfers as much money as possible to their own account without permission…