BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- It's a scam that targets neighborhoods and preys on people willing to lend a helping hand.

Josette Jung learned about this scam the hard way. A man came to her southwest Bakersfield home Monday posing as her neighbor.

Jung said he stopped at her security gate and called her name. He asked her if she heard an ambulance at his house last night.

"I said no, how come I didn't hear it? He said, 'His daughter has seizures, she got up in the middle of the night, she had a seizure hit her head on the night stand," said Jung.

He went on to say his daughter is in the hospital and that he and his wife need to borrow $300 and that they would pay her back first thing in the morning, Jung said.

"I thought, sure, I'll help you, I recognize you as my neighbor, but it wasn't," said Jung.

Jung told the man that she could only give him $160, and that she didn't have cash so they would have to go to the ATM.

That's when Jung and the man drove to the nearest ATM, and she pulled out money. He then asked her if she could drop him off at Valley Plaza where his car was being worked on.

"I dropped him off and said, 'Ok, you're in my prayers.' And he goes, 'I'll tell the kids that you are thinking of them," she said.

Jung said she didn't realize she was scammed until she got home and talked to her husband.

" The guy down the street it was terrible we missed the ambulance coming and he goes, 'that's a scam.' I said what do you mean, he said he just read it in the newspaper," she said.

Police say this isn't a new scam. They believe the same man has struck several times in the last year in the south, southwest parts of town.

"We recommend that they call the police right away. We recommend that people don't give people money, you can tell somebody that if they are asking for money to contact the police department and we will direct them towards some resources that might be able to help them," said Detective Mary DeGeare of the Bakersfield Police Department.

DeGeare said if the man is caught, he could face felony charges.

Now Jung wants to warn others that being a good neighbor doesn't always pay off.

"It's sad now that I won't help, that I will think twice before helping people now," she said.