An 80-year-old man lost $25,000 following an elaborate scam that included phone calls from people pretending to be an official with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Irvine police chief, authorities said.
On April 24, police learned about the scam that involved at least four people working in concert to get the victim to put the money in a shoebox and hand it over to a courier at a Kohl’s store parking lot on Jeffrey Road north of the 5 Freeway, said, Ziggy Azarcon, an officer and Irvine Police Department spokesperson.
The man had received a text message he believed was from an Apple representative saying his account was compromised and he needed to call the Apple number on the message, Azarcon said. After calling, the man was told his Wells Fargo bank account was also compromised and the scammer transferred him to a fake bank representative.
“He just so happened to have a Wells Fargo account making it more believable,” Azarcon said.
From there, the fake bank representative told the man there were criminal charges pending on the account and that ATF was investigating, Azarcon said. Soon after, the man received a call from a man claiming to be an ATF director. Azarcon said the scammer used a legitimate name and told the victim he was under investigation for weapons trafficking and money laundering.
The $25,000 would resolve his case, the man was told.
Another call came, appearing as if it was from the Irvine Police Department, Azarcon said. The scammers somehow worked it so that the number showed up as an Irvine PD phone number.
That scammer claimed to be Irvine Police Chief Michael Kent and told the man to cooperate with the ATF. The fake ATF director called back and kept the victim on the phone for several hours, while directing him to go to two separate banks to pull out the money, then drive it over to the Kohl’s parking lot.
Irvine police and detectives were working to get surveillance video from the shopping center in hopes of identifying the courier who picked up the shoebox, Azarcon said.
It was not known if the courier was aware of the scam or just got played, Azarcon said.
“In these situations, a lot of times it goes … through about five different couriers before it gets to the actual scammer,” the spokesman said. “It makes it hard to trace and track these people down.”
Irvine police would never threaten or harass community members about paying money to anyone, Azarcon said. Another red flag: Scammers usually create a ruse requiring immediate action.
“It’s OK to hang up the phone, look up the agency online (for a real phone number) and speak to them directly to confirm the information the scammers are giving,” Azarcon said. “It never hurts to get off the phone and make that phone call.”
As an example, Azarcon said, if someone says they are from a bank, hang up, look on the back or your debit or credit card and call that number to confirm the information. Also, Azarcon warned, be aware of emails that have words or company names misspelled.
Azarcon said the whole situation has caused health issues with the 80-year-old victim.
His son spoke to KTLA Channel 5 and said at first he was angry when he saw the text message that was sent to his father.
“You soon realize that that generation is not prepared for the world we’re in right now when it comes to fraud and multiple different ways of them contacting,” he told the station.
“I work in technology right now,” the son said. “I get training all of the time, and some of the stuff that seems common sense to me, to an 80-year-old doesn’t seem that common sense. So I feel there’s definitely a need to educate.”