Cops: Ex-bank worker charged in investment scam

It was a deal that sounded too good to be true -- 20 percent interest on a three-month investment of $5,000.

It was too good to be true, according to police.

The alleged scam ended in the arrest Tuesday of Stefans Zaffuto, 27, of 85 Hamilton Ave., Massapequa, who was charged with third-degree grand larceny.

Zaffuto approached a 27-year-old woman in September, telling her she could earn 20-percent interest on a stock purchase, Nassau County police said.

All she had to do, police said Zaffuto told her, was give him $5,000 and wait three months.

She gave Zaffuto the money on Sept. 15, in the parking lot of a Chase Bank branch on Hicksville Road in North Massapequa where he had been employed, police said.

And after three months, police said, the woman asked Zaffuto for the principal and interest -- neither of which, police said, he was able to produce.

She filed a complaint.

He was arrested.

Zaffuto now faces arraignment Wednesday in First District Court in Hempstead.