01 January Scams
01.04 The victim stated back on December 3 his Facebook account was hacked and he could no longer access it. He stated he wasn't too concerned because he rarely used Facebook and didn't think he had any personal information on it. He stated he contacted Facebook and notified them his account had been hacked but they still haven't taken it down. He stated yesterday, a friend of his saw the hacker made a post and was trying to sell a car and to appear legitimate, showed a photo of the victim’s license to prove that it was him. He stated he notified all his financial providers and placed alerts on his accounts but they advised him to get a case report number in case the hacker was able to successfully make a fraudulent transaction with whatever information they had.
01.10 I am sure this is one of the first AI scam patterns we are going to see. The victim told me that he was contacted by a random phone number on Whatsapp on his phone. The number (530-545-6752) demanded that he send $7,000.00 or else they would photoshop his image in inappropriate ways and send them to his family and friends. He knew this was a scam and blocked the number. He was then contacted through Facebook by one of his friends. His friend had claimed to receive and inappropriate photo of him and asked him what was happening. He advised him of the scam. His
“friend” then told him to call this random number, claiming the number (360-522-4517) belonged to a random police officer. He called the number and spoke to a man who did not identify himself with any agency and did not provide a name. He said the conversation made him uneasy and that the man did not sound like a police officer and he hung up. The victim later learned that these scammers had made a fake Facebook account of his friend, attempting to pursued the victim to send them money and also posed as the police officer. He has not had any inappropriate photos of himself sent to his actual family and friends. I asked him if he had any fraudulent activity on his bank account. He said that he is too scared to look. I advised him that he needs to check for fraudulent activity and immediately notify his bank and law enforcement if there is any. I advised him to block the phone number and delete Whatsapp (or at least change the password). I told him to inform his family and friends of the scam. I advised him to call with any other suspicious activity so it could be documented.
01.10 The victim said she received a voicemail on 1/9/24 from someone impersonating Sgt. Woitel – real ACSO employee. The voicemail said she was in contempt of court for failing to appear in federal court and that the matter was urgent. She called the number back later in the day but no one answered. On 1/10/24 she received a phone call from someone impersonating Woitel who explained in detail about how she missed a court date and she could handle it two ways. The first being as a civil matter (pay a fine of $4,750) for each count or it would become a criminal matter. For the criminal matter she was handed off to someone impersonating Lt. Schilling – a real ACSO Employee. The person went on to say that she would be taken into custody for the violation if she didn't follow the civil route to handle this. She was told to get the amount in cash and to bring it to kiosk at Cub Foods so the funds could be converted into Bitcoin. Once Bitcoin was brought up the victim began to think this was an elaborate scam and didn't go any further with the transaction. The victim lives in Golden Valley and went to their police department to make a report. Golden Valley told her that she should report it to us since names of real employees were used.
01.13 I spoke to the victim who said he received an odd message this morning on FB from an unknown person that said "How are you?" He responded with who is this? He said the person then texted something similar to “if you don't respond to my demands, I will send your family and friends pictures.” He then received what appeared to be screen shots of his FB page as well as his wife's and daughter's. This unknown person also said he would be sending his boys over and for the victim to “rest in peace.” The victim said he had no enemies nor made anyone mad recently. He has blocked and deleted some of the messages. Message also came across his wife's phone. They have ignored and not responded to any more messages. I recommended they change passwords on FB and bank accounts to be safe. He said he will call friends and family to tell them to not respond or open any messages from unknown people.
01.16 The victim reported that he sent $130 via Venmo to an account named: andre-jackson-3108c for four Magic cards. He said the cards were posted for sale on a FB group named: Magic the Gathering-Minnesota using an account name of Aaron Dekmer. It appears both accounts have now been deleted. The account he sent the money to asked him to cancel the transaction using poorly written English. The victim said Venmo told him the money had been removed from the account he sent it to.
01.16 Be aware, never download the Anydesk App; the app allows scammers to remotely access your device. The victim reported that she attempted to call the Amazon fraud department. She had been unable to log into the account for some time and had received two deliveries right before Christmas that she didn't order. The ultimate conclusion of this incident was approximately $27,000 was swindled by depositing money into a Bitcoin reverse ATM. The short version: The victim called whom she though was Amazon Customer Service. The person she spoke to said there was two large orders on her Amazon account that were being delivered and in order to stop the alleged fraudulent orders, she needed to pay for them so they could stop delivery. The scammers directed her to go to her bank and kept her on the phone the entire time. They directed her to make withdrawals told her to tell the bank tellers it was for a home remodeling project. Everything needed to be done in a hurry, and she was not allowed to talk with anyone about it. At some point during their conversations, she was transferred to officials with the “US Treasury.” She was told to deposit the cash at a Bitcoin ATM inside a gas station in Ham Lake. The money was deposited into a wallet printed on a receipt and she gave the numbers to the wallet to the scammers over the phone.
01.16 The male stated his daughter received a message from liam_artpage on Instagram in regards to them doing paintings of previously taken pictures on her account. The individuals sent a $1,000 check from Northstar Food Services Inc to his daughter and requested she deposit it. Then, the individuals requested her to transfer $380 in several different Zelle transactions. They did lose $380 during the incident. The daughter was only 14.
01.19 The victim reported she received a phone call from someone claiming to be Xfinity. They provided her the last 4 numbers of her bank account number. They requested she send her a picture of her driver's license, which she did. She also provided them with her social security number. I advised her to monitor her accounts and she advised she had already spoken to her bank. No monetary loss at this time.
01.21 The victim stated he was on the application Grinder talking with a male named "Mike". During the course of the conversation they both exchanged naked photos. “Mike” then called and was threatening to send the pictures to everyone the victim knew, including work associates if he did not pay $3000. I advised the victim to lock down all his social media accounts just in case and to stop communicating with “Mike”.
01.22 The victim advised that he randomly started receiving messages from an unknown person. He stated that the messages were lewd pictures, some of which he claimed could be perceived as him. The victim denied sending any nude pictures to anyone but his girlfriend. He advised that the person who sent the messages threatened to send the pictures to his family if he didn't pay them money. He stated that the person knew the names of his family members and also had their phone numbers. He advised that he ended up sending the individual $400 through Zelle. He advised that today, he was contacted by the individuals from a different number asking for more money. He stated that he didn't send any money and is blocking the numbers. He notified his family members of the potential pictures they could be receiving and let them know that they weren't from him if they received any.
1.25 The victim received a call from someone asking about his Amazon account. He said the person informed him he worked for the Federal Trade Company. They said his Amazon account has been tracked to five different cities around the U.S and he needed to remove the money from his bank account. He also said they told him not to tell anyone because they will not be able to help him and law enforcement will arrest him. I asked him if he had given any information to the person which he did not. He said they were supposed to be calling back tomorrow to give him more information.
01.25 The victim stated that someone called on behalf of his bank stating there was unauthorized transactions on his account. He sent some information to the person and a few hours later didn't feel it was correct. He stated that he called the bank, and they advised him that he had transferred $25,000 to his checking account from savings which he didn't. He stated that the bank was able to stop the transfer and he was out no money.
01.25 The victim called Facebook to help with installing the app to his new phone and changing his phone number. He looked up the phone number for FB support on Google and called. The number was a fake number to a scammer. He was told there was a lot of fraudulent activity on his account and it would take time to clean it up. He was talked into withdrawing money and opening a PayPal account and depositing money and sending it to the person he called. In total he transferred $9000 to PayPal. He later realized this was a scam and stopped communication.
01.26 The victim was selling a dresser on FB Marketplace. She was messaging an individual with the FB name of Sandra Johnson. The victim said she made a deal with Johnson to sell her the dresser. Johnson was to Venmo her the money. The victim said that Jonson claimed her Venmo account was a business account and could not send a small increment of money of $75 so she said she would send her $375 with her then sending $300 back. The victim was contacted by Johnson who said she sent an additional $300 because the first $300 did not go through and Johnson was wanting money returned. The victim noticed a $300 transaction on her Venmo that she said she did not authorize.
01.31 The victim stated she purchased a chair for $95 on Facebook Marketplace on Monday and it was supposed to be delivered yesterday and never showed up. She stated that she realized she was scammed when she looked up the address the seller gave, and it came back to a storage place. She said that the seller said they were from Better Bargain Minnesota. I tried to look up the business but was not able to locate one. She said she used Google Pay and notified her bank of the transaction.
01.31 The victim stated on 1/11/2024 she saw a post on Facebook from a "Ginney Anderson" who was selling 4 Morgan Wallen tickets. She agreed to purchase the tickets for $800.00. The suspect told her that she had to Venmo her "partner" "Micheal Kessler" the money. The victim did send the money however, the next day the suspect told the victim that he isn't sending the tickets or giving her a refund. She realized that she got scammed.