The ordeal turned into an all-day process for the woman who says the scam artists kept her on the phone for hours and hours, including as she drove to the bank, multiple stores and eventually, the sheriff’s office. — Dreamstime/TNS
Scammers posing on the phone as “calm and cool” sheriff’s officers earlier last month conned a 31-year-old Cabarrus County woman out of US$10,120 (RM44,447), the woman told The Charlotte Observer.
The ordeal turned into an all-day process for the woman who says the scam artists kept her on the phone for hours and hours, including as she drove to the bank, multiple stores and eventually, the sheriff’s office.
Mackenzie Nied said she hopes that by publicising her story, others won’t fall for the ruse.
On Thursday, two other victims already had been bilked by similar phone scammers, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office reported.
The public may think scammers prey mostly on the elderly, Nied said, but she’s a 31-year-old physical therapist who got duped.
Scam used public records
Nied said she was sceptical at first and even initially hung up on the scammers. She said she remained sceptical throughout the day, peppering the scammers with questions.
The crooks, however, pulled enough detailed information about her through public records to convince her that she owed the money to the Cabarrus County Courts, she said.
One of the impostors said her license as a physical therapist could be suspended “if you don’t take care of this”.
She was told she missed court appearances and owed “fealty bond” money to avoid jail on charges of failure to appear and contempt of court, Nied said.
No such “fealty” bond exists under N.C. law, according to NCCourts.gov.
She fell for the threats partly because she recently provided expert testimony at a lawyer’s office in a case involving a client hurt in a wreck, Nied said.
The scammers also told her they were tracking her phone. Due to a court gag order, they said, she wasn’t allowed to talk to anyone about the situation.
Notices to appear in court could have been mailed to a wrong address, the scammers told her. That sounded plausible to her because mail has been delivered to wrong addresses in her neighbourhood, she said.
And the real phone number of the sheriff’s office appeared on her phone during the scam, she said.
Victim details day-long scam
The scammers called her at about 10.45 that morning, Nied said.
She soon entered her Wells Fargo branch in Concord to withdraw the cash, she said. A bank transaction statement she provided to the Observer confirms the withdrawal. A Wells Fargo spokesman was out of the office this week and couldn’t be reached for comment.
She remembers the teller asking if she was “Making a big purchase for the holidays?”
“I’m not at liberty to say,” Nied said she replied.
With cash in hand, Nied said she next drove to five Walmarts – in Concord, north Charlotte and Huntersville. She was told to upload the cash onto bar codes, which the scammers sent her in text messages. Only a limited amount of cash could be uploaded onto the bar codes, which is why she had to make transactions at five stores, she said.
The bar codes let her upload all but US$400 of the cash. She was instructed to put the US$400 on MoneyPak cards at Walgreens, which she did, she said.
Phone scam pretending to be police
Nied said she spoke with three impostors throughout the day, including a man who identified himself as “Lt. Gilmore”. He spent hours on the phone with her, including while she was at the bank and until she drove to the Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office in Concord just after 5pm, she said.
She went there because the impostors told her she needed to set up an appointment for a “signature verification test,” she said.
“You’ll get your money back if your signature doesn’t match the one on the subpoena,” one of the impostors told her.
She realised she may have been scammed when one of the callers suddenly warned her not to enter the sheriff’s office, she said.
“Ma’am, you need to stay in your vehicle because you have a pending arrest warrant,” the caller told her.
“No, that’s ridiculous,” she replied.
She decided to enter the building. At the security checkpoint, two officers immediately told her she’d been scammed when she mentioned she was there for a signature verification test.
Nied filed an incident report that evening with the Kannapolis Police Department, which covers the area where she lives. The Observer obtained a copy of part of the report showing Nied as the victim, the amount stolen and the incident as “fraud – computer Electronic.” The report offers no details about what happened.
Nied said a Kannapolis Police officer assigned to her case told her on Wednesday that he’s still investigating and the case “remains open.” An office spokesman didn’t reply to a request for comment from the Observer.
If she ever receives another such call, she said, she’ll go straight to the sheriff’s office.
Earlier scam warning
The Cabarrus County Sheriff’s Office issued a “scam alert” on Facebook on Dec 9 after getting reports about similar phone scams.
“THIS IS A SCAM,” the sheriff’s office posted on Facebook.
“The Sheriff’s Office will NOT call you and ask you for money to avoid a warrant or any other process. The Sheriff’s Office will not ask you to pay anything with a pre-paid card. You will be served in person if we have a criminal process for you.”
The calls might seem legitimate, sheriff’s officials said on Facebook. “If you call the number back, it is answered as the Sheriff’s Office and you will be transferred to a phone tree that also makes it seem more credible.”
That’s what happened to her, Nied said, with the real number of the sheriff’s office appearing on her phone. She hadn’t seen the sheriff’s office Facebook post before she was scammed, she said.
Hang up the phone, sheriff’s officials recommend, and report the call to your local law enforcement agency.
Lincoln County scams
On Thursday, the Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office said it’s investigating two scam calls that bilked victims out of a total of US$2,400 (RM10,540).
▪ On Tuesday, Dec 27, a woman reported that a scammer who identified himself as “Detective Daniel Johnson” said she needed to pay for a contempt of court order from a citation she received in Mecklenburg County.
The caller had the victim’s name, citation number and other information, according to a sheriff’s office news release.
The victim was told to place US$900 (RM3,952) in a Coin Flip Cryto ATM at a business on East Main Street in Lincolnton and then an additional US$500 (RM2,196) in the machine, which she did, according to the release.
▪ On Wednesday, Dec 28, a man reported that a caller told him to deposit US$1,000 (RM4,392) in a QR code at a kiosk in the 2500 block of East Main Street. The victim complied after the caller said a warrant had been issued for his arrest for failing to appear in court, sheriff’s officials said. – The Charlotte Observer/Tribune News Service
