Two Aiea women are facing federal charges for allegedly stealing a check and credit card number from a man in his 90s to spend more than $20,000 on cars, jewelry, hardware and spa treatments.

Hawaii residents over 60 years of age lost nearly $28 million last year to fraud schemes targeting older Americans’ money or cryptocurrency, according to the FBI.

In Hawaii, 453 complaints were filed with the agency’s Internet Crime Complaint Center last year, ranking the state 37th nationally. California led the nation last year with 11,622 elder fraud complaints.

Kalehuaiwilliamekamaile “Maile” Montez and Totie Tauala were charged by federal criminal complaint Oct. 20 with wire fraud, bank fraud, aggravated identity theft and conspiracy to commit fraud. Montez plead not guilty Tuesday and Tauala plead not guilty Nov. 5 ahead of their Dec. 31 trial.

According to an affidavit authored by a Honolulu police detective working as a task force officer for Homeland Security Investigations, between Feb. 12 and March 19, the two women allegedly made “unauthorized purchases” at Hawaii businesses using the credit card and check from the elderly man, a driver’s license belonging to a California woman in her 30s and the name of an Arizona woman in her 20s who visited Hawaii in 2023.

Investigators became aware of the scheme when the man’s caregiver and daughter were contacted by a credit card company about possible fraud.

The owner of a spa told police that on Feb. 13, Montez and Tauala arrived for an appointment made by a spa regular. Montez gave spa staff the name of the Arizona woman and told them she had stage four cancer and that Tauala was her wife.

The Arizona woman later told investigators that after she returned home from Hawaii in 2023 she discovered her identity had been used to apply for a loan from a jewelry store.

The 12-page criminal complaint lists an array of purchases made with the man’s credit card and check.

On Feb. 13, the two women allegedly bought $1,725 worth of services and tried to use the credit card to pay. When the card didn’t work, Montez then successfully entered the credit card number manually into a terminal at the spa’s register.

Montez allegedly used the same method to buy $662 worth of services Feb. 14 and returned March 9 and bought $1,359 worth of spa gift cards.

On Feb. 18, a car dealer told police that Montez set up a test drive for Tauala, whom she identified as her girlfriend. Tauala test drove the car and said she wanted to buy it. Montez tried to use Apple Pay for a down payment of $6,150 and financed the remaining $21,439. When the transaction failed, Montez again used the victim’s credit card number by manually entering it into a sales terminal.

Montez allegedly used the same method March 13 to buy $1,529 worth of sports memorabilia, returning March 14 and March 19 to buy $4,435 worth of items from the sports memorabilia business.

A few days earlier, on March 10, Montez allegedly used the man’s credit card number to buy three gold rope chains and a gold pendant for $5,145.