Costly lesson: Phony cops scam Edmonds man out of $27,000

Published 1:30 am Friday, November 23, 2018

EDMONDS — As far as scams go, this one was mighty convincing.

The elaborate ruse began with a late-morning phone call on Sept. 12.

The caller ID read San Francisco Police Department.

When the Edmonds man answered, a man purporting to be a police officer threatened him with felonies before transferring him to a woman who claimed to be a detective. She told him that the call was being recorded and if he had contact with anyone else that person also could be charged.

The Edmonds man was told that an abandoned Toyota Corolla had been rented under his name and had been found in Houston, Texas, with 200 pounds of cocaine inside. Worse yet, multiple accounts in his name had been used to transfer more than $300,000 to Mexico and Colombia.

She then transferred the Edmonds man to a supposed FBI agent who asked to verify his name and Social Security number, which he did.

One thing led to another and the Edmonds man was soon out $27,000, according to a search warrant filed in Snohomish County Superior Court. He also gave the scammers all of his personal information, addresses and even sent them a picture of his Washington state driver’s licence, the court papers said.

He transferred the money to a Citibank account number, and was told to drive to a federal office in Bellevue where he could start the process of dissolving his Social Security number.

By the time he arrived, he was told by the caller not to go inside because outstanding warrants against him were not yet cleared. He was told that the investigation was growing and couldn’t be resolved that day, so it was best for him to go home.

By that time, his money was long gone, being transferred hither and yon.

When he got home, the Edmonds man told his family what happened. Soon thereafter, he reported it to police in Edmonds.

The next day, he received a call that appeared to be from the Edmonds Police Department’s main number. He quickly became suspicious, given the accent of the voice from the other end of the line. He then called Edmonds police and verified that nobody from the department was trying to reach him.

Scammers can be quite sophisticated in appearing to be someone they are not and calling from somewhere they are not, Edmonds police Sgt. Shane Hawley said.

As for the scammers, the trail “led to someone likely out of the country, which is not uncommon,” Hawley said. “You can only chase it for so long.

“The important thing on these fraud cases is to report it right away and to let your financial institution know right away,” Hawley said.

Edmonds detective Stephen Morrison did succeed in retrieving about $9,000 of the victim’s lost money.

That is some consolation.

“That does not happen very often,” Hawley said.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.