Scammer’s phone 1-361-6578
Country United States
Type of a scam Government Agency Imposter
Initial means of contact Phone
A woman using the name Anna Morris called my cell phone Oct. 28, 2020, claiming to be with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in San Antonio, Texas. The call was from (210) 225-6741, the main line for the San Antonio FBI. She told me someone was using my identification in a money laundering scheme and the FBI wanted to determine if I was in fact the suspect or if someone had stolen my identity. Having never been involved with or exposed to anything remotely related to this in 70 years, I simply provided the information she requested.
After the 15-minute conversation, a man claiming to be Agent Sean Fez Winson came on the phone and spent 2 hours combing through personal information. Fortunately, although bank amounts were discussed, actual account numbers were not given. When I told him I had a small account of about $1200.00, he said to go to a nearby grocery store such as Kroger or Meijer and get two specific gift cards of $500.00 each. He said to keep him on the phone, but not talk to him whileI was in the store. And if a clerk asked me why I was buying the cards, I should either say for gifts or simply none of their concern. But definitely don’t mention the FBI.
I drove to Kroger’s, told him I was going in, entered the store, and purchased 2 Nike gift cards for $500 each. I payed in the self-pay with my bank card from that account line so there was no interaction, so I followed Sean’s directions. Sean stayed on the phone the entire time, and when I go home from Kroger’s, he instructed me to read him both card numbers and their PIN numbers. So I did that.
Before hanging up, Sean said, “Well, it’s really important you don’t tell anyone — your wife, any family members, your friends, anyone — that you’re involved with the FBI in this.” He added, “When you get a call tomorrow from this office, I don’t want you to assume it’s me or a legitimate connection. So in order to know it’s me, when I say, ‘Good morning,’ I want to to respond with a pre-planned response.” My response turned how to be, “What is the name of your son” and his response was “Damon.” Anything other than that and I was to hang up immediately. End of Day One.
The next day, Sean called me at 10AM from the San Antonio FBI office phone number with the next set of instructions: I was to go to my bank and withdraw a total of $22,000 in cash, leaving just a small amount to keep the accounts open. Again, he said it was no one’s business why I was making the withdrawal and to definitely say nothing about the FBI’s involvement. He remained on my cell phone as I got out of the car and went into the bank. After the withdrawal, I went back out to my car and was surprised to find that we had been somehow disconnected.
I simply decided to call him back at the San Antonio office, and that’s where things began to unravel. When an agent answered and said, “San Antonio Federal Bureau of Investigation,” I asked to speak to Agent Winson. When he asked why, I gave him the story of what I had been through the night before and immediately preceding my phone call to the office. The agent said, “We have no one here by that name, nor do we have anyone by the name of the woman you mentioned. It’s obvious that you’ve been scammed.”
My question for starters, of course, was how they could have possibly called me from an FBI phone number. His response was very informative. “We get hacked all the time and there’s nothing we can do about it because we have a public phone number.” He said this was not the first time their office number had been used for a scam. Because the number had been hacked, when it showed up on my caller ID, it was the scammers. Yet when I called it, I called the actual FBI office.
The conversation with the FBI agent was very enlightening, so after finishing, I went back into the bank with the cash withdrawal and re-deposited it, 15 minutes after withdrawing it. As for the two $500 Nike gift cards, I contacted the company after getting home from the bank and the people I spoke to were very helpful. One of the cards had been completely spent, and Nike said they would try to intercept the orders before they shipped out. The second card hadn’t yet been used and Nike assured me I would be fully refunded.
Then I texted Sean at the Beeville, TX cell phone number he had given me — (361) 254-6578 — and told him I was on to him. Amazingly, he texted me numerous times, even going so far as to text me a photo of a FBI identification card he claimed was him. He even went to far as to say that the San Antonio office didn’t know him because he was working undercover. He finally stopped trying to contact me.
However, while writing this, my cell phone rang and a recording claiming to be the Social Security Office stated my SSN was being used fraudulently. If I wished to report this as a scam, I should press 1. Knowing by now that the government does not call, it simply knocks on my door when the situation warrants, I hung up immediately. Then, because I had the phone number, I called it back. The owner of the phone number turned out to be a resident up in Hancock County who suggested I report the call to the Sheriff’s Department here in Brown County.
This has been a learning experience for me. I suppose I’m embarrassed to be 70 years of age with virtually no previous exposure to this sort of thing. I have now been instructed from several different directions not to speak on the phone with anyone claiming to be with any Federal agency.
Victim Location 02472
Type of a scam Tax Collection
They told me the FBI was opening a warrant on me for missed taxes. They said the call was being recorded, and asked if I had the funds to cover the taxes. I said yes, and at that point they hung up.