An elderly Alexandria woman was scammed of $77,000 in a complex scheme last month by multiple suspects purporting to be representatives from Amazon, the Federal Trade Commission and Bank of America.
On June 26, the victim got a call from “Anna Covery,” a woman claiming to work for Amazon, to inform her that her account was compromised. Covey told her that someone used her account to buy a $1,400 laptop and $200 in accessories, according to a recently released search warrant affidavit.
The victim replied that she doesn’t have an active Amazon account and couldn’t talk because she was at the doctor’s office. The caller gave the victim a false name, “Anna Covey,” an Amazon employee ID number, a complaint number and a direct phone number to contact her. The victim called the number and the woman told her that her package was likely to be delivered, regardless of whether she had an existing account, according to the affidavit.
“When [the victim] asked how this was possible, ‘Anna Covery’ said it appeared [the victim] was the victim of identity theft,” according to the affidavit.
“Anna Covery” then transferred the call to a man named “Neil Carson,” who said that he worked with Bank of America’s fraud department. The victim was then told by Carson that he would add “Officer Marcus Aubin” with the Federal Trade Commission to the call.
“‘Officer Aubin’ told [the victim] her identity had turned up in banks in Virginia, Texas, Ohio and New York,” according to the affidavit. “The banks included Bank of America, Wells Fargo, US Bank, and PNC Bank. ‘Officer Aubin’ said [the victim’s] identity was tied to drug activity in Mexico and Colombia.”
Aubin allegedly told the victim he would monitor her account for 10 to 12 days and to contact him or Carson if she saw any unusual transactions greater than $1,000.
Later that day, on June 26, the victim got another call from Carson. He said that, over the last eight months, there were two suspicious employees who worked at her local Bank of America branch in Alexandria, and that one of them was charged after manipulating customer accounts, according to the affidavit.
On June 27, the victim got another call from Carson, who reported that the individual arrested likely committed the fraud. He also warned her against opening any strange text messages.
“[The victim] was convinced not to trust her local Bank of America branch,” according to the affidavit.
On June 28, the victim received an “unusual” text with a hyperlink. She contacted Aubin, who told her to ignore it and told her that he would call her the next day.
On June 29, Aubin called to say someone apparently using her identity in Florida bought a handgun, and that her Social Security number would be suspended in a couple of days. She was also told that she should not discuss the case with anyone and to put some of her funds into a “safe” escrow account. Aubin asked the victim how much money she had in her bank accounts.
“[The victim] indicated that her account(s) had over $100,000 in them,” according to the affidavit. “‘Officer Aubin’ also asked (the victim) how much her house was worth and a rough guess about her mutual/investment funds, as well as if she owned any gold or silver.”
On June 30, Aubin contacted the victim and said he’d been in contact with the FBI and the Attorney General’s Office, and that “it was agreed by those entities that she should place $77,000 into the escrow account they discussed the day before,” according to the affidavit.
The victim was instructed to go to the Bank of America branch in Old Town and withdraw the amount in a cashier’s check and make it out to a company in Flushing, N.Y. She did as instructed, but on July 1, while searching the FTC’s website, she read that they would never ask for money in such situations. The following day, July 2, she tried to cancel delivery of the envelope but was told it was already delivered.
The victim contacted the Alexandria Police Department to report the incidents on July 6. No arrests have been made.
The FTC says that scammers may impersonate its officers.
“Know that the FTC will never threaten you, say you must transfer your money to ‘protect it,’ or tell you to withdraw cash or buy gold and give it to someone,” FTC says on its website.
