12 December Scams
12.01 The victim said he was scammed out of $1000 by someone online. He explained that he was messaged on Discord about him making some explicit videos for someone and in return they would pay him. He said that he made a few videos and that they paid him with a check. The suspect who claimed to be Carol Whitt, said that they needed the victim to pay someone some money for her. Carol then sent him another check for $1000 and asked him to send the money to the other person through Zelle. He did that, but the check bounced.
12.08 The victim explained that on 12/07/23 she tried to apply for a loan through USA Cash App Advance. She stated she gave her bank account routing numbers and her social security number to the app. The app sent $400 to her bank account saying it would build her credit score and requested she buy a Walmart Money Card with the $400 and transfer it back to them. She said she did and gave them the information on the card. She stated that today she had someone leave her a voicemail with the name of Denver Brown saying he is from the USA Cash App Advance and they want to send her more money. She stated she changed the password to her account so they cannot get back into it. I told her to tell her bank what was going on to closely monitor her accounts and to tell Social Security that she gave her number out.
12.12 The victim reported he began speaking with someone named Spencer Lahue on a FB page titled similar to "Minnesota Vikings Uncensored." Spencer was reportedly selling tickets to the Vikings game on 12-31-2023. Over a series of days, the victim spoke with Spencer on FB Messenger to try to buy the tickets; he agreed to $400. The victim said he paid Spencer through Zelle. He received a confirmation code for the transaction. The victim began to get suspicious of the transaction because the app told him that Spencer was enrolled as "Anthony" with the phone number different. Spencer also did not send tickets right away. Several days went by and he still did not receive the tickets.
12.15 The victim explained that he received an email from Northern Lock Life saying he had to renew or cancel his subscription. He emailed them back saying he wanted to cancel the subscription but was informed that he needed to pay a fee. He said they told him he needed to pay $400.00, so he did, but when he checked, they charged him $4000.00. He contacted them, telling them they took too much when they explained that he must have made the mistake of adding another zero. The victim said there was one more withdrawal of $6000.00, and he has not been able to get an email back from them since. The bank informed him they could not stop the payments from going through.
12.18 The victim reported he was contacted via text message by an unknown person who identified himself as Henderson asking him if he'd be interested in placing an Aquifina advertisement on his vehicle. He explained that he had done this before for different companies, so he agreed. After some back and forth via text messaging, Henderson told him he would send him a cashier's check for advertising for the company. The victim received a cashier's check that he brought to his bank, and they told him it was fake. The victim then contacted Henderson and explained what happened with the check, and Henderson then told him that the FBI would be coming to his house.
12.19 Business: The manager reported that his shift lead was contacted via phone by a male who identified himself as 'JJ' claiming to be the franchise owner. JJ advised that there is an investigation going on within the company regarding the upper management at the location stealing money from the business. JJ instructed the employee to remove all the money from the till and safe, package it, and deposit it at Walgreens. The victim gathered the money and went to Walgreens and deposited the money. JJ provided him an account name of to deposit the money. He also mentioned that two other locations had identical incidents recently.
12.21 The victim reported that she was on her computer and she received a pop-up message that told her to call 855-777-3929, because her computer had been compromised. She called and spoke to two separate people. One of the people went by the name "Alison". The victim was convinced to purchase $5000 worth of gift cards and then provide the card information to the people on the phone. She advised they were communicating through "Any Desk" on the computer. Microsoft was contacted and advised it was not them, and that it was fraud.
12.28 The victim stated she had $473,000 stolen. She was closing on a house in Coon Rapids and the realtor she was working with had an email of XXX in which they were communicating through. She received an email from an address very similar, but not the same, however, she did not notice right away. She explained that the person using the fake email was informing her how to wire the money and gave her the information over email. The money was sent and when she called her realtor, they informed her they had never received the payment. She contacted her bank to stop the payment and to report it as fraud. The payment is currently being held, and she was informed she needs to have her bank call them to return the money. She did not trust the credit union, and I verified with a representative over the phone this was legit. They informed me that someone who banks through them was the person who initiated the transaction to receive the victim’s money and they are investigating.