My husband received a call one afternoon from someone posing as an agent from the US Marshall’s service. He was a little suspicious at first. He was told to go to US Marshals Service website and look the phone number under a specific name. Then he compared the number to the number that called him. They were the same. They told him the badge number. He was told that he reported fraudulent activities on his bank account and credit cards recently and they are investigating these activities. He needed to cooperate with them. They told him his social security number and his bank account and credit cards that had the fraudulent activities. He was told they need to link his bank account to his new social security number that his is going to get. Because there were some fraudulent claims on his social security and he needs to change social security number. He was told to go to the nearest Bank of America office which is about 1 hour from our house. They gave him the address and told him not to tell anyone not even his wife otherwise, I would have to go through the same process.
My husband grabbed the kids and went to Bank of America office. The caller told him he would stay on the phone through the whole process. At bank of America, my husband was instructed to withdraw cash from his credit card. He was told he needs to buy gift cards and send them the numbers. They would use that to track who used his account fraudulently and they would returned him his money the next day.
Before he left for bank of America, they asked him how much we have in our back account. He told them. They asked him to stop at the bank and withdraw $3,000. He did. That wiped out our checking and saving accounts.
At Bank of America, he did cash advance for $9,500. With the caller on the phone, he was given a target address to go and purchase gift card for $1000 and he told them the gift card number. Them they gave him another target to go to.
With 3 young kids from 8 to 3 years old, he drove to different stores including, many target stores, Walgreens, and Walmart.
They made him purchase gift cards using Capital one for cash advance of $200. He was instructed to purchase gift cards with Discover card for $7,500. Each gift card had about $1,000. You purchased 18 gifts cards from many Target stores, two Best Buy gift cards, and one Walmart’s gift card for $200 that came from Capital One.
He put on these gifts cards little over $18,000.
When I couldn’t reach him after work I kept calling him without success. I called the library to check. I was told it was against their policy to page someone. I called the church when he should have picked the kids up and they were closed. Finally, I called the police and asked them if there have been an accident in town that day that I could not reach my husband. They said no. I told them that my husband was not at home with our children and I couldn’t reach them. While I waited for the police to send one of their team, I tried to look for our car plate number. Then I remarked that a folder that has the information was missing. The folder contains all his credit cards and debit card. I opened the bank account online and noticed that $ 1,500 was moved from saving to checking and $3,000 was withdrawn. At that point, I panicked. We have a little disagreement in the morning when I told him that he needs to tell his mom to get her own cell phone plan. She works and could afford her phone. Therefore, it is not financial savvy for us to pay for her cell phone. Then I told him to cut cable and start the process of getting You Tube that he told me about. He disagreed that he is not going to cut cable until You Tube is in place.
When I didn’t see him at home and he wouldn’t take my calls, and $3,000 missing, I wondered if he flew town with our children and our money.
I called his mom to greet her without telling her anything. She talked without acting weird. So I thought he has not gone there.
At one point he picked up the phone and told me that he was in the city next to us an hour away and would be home by 8 pm. I talked to the kids. They seemed to be in good spirit. However, I didn’t believe much of what he said to me. I didn’t point out that money was missing from our bank account. I talked with him calmly telling him to return home with the kids safely. He worked overnight and be on the road when he didn’t sleep all day, I was afraid he would doze off while driving.
The police came and I narrated what happened. I showed them the missing money on our bank account and told them we have a small disagreement in the morning but I don’t know if he just decided to leave me and took the kids. They asked if he was a danger to the kids and I said no. They advised me to call him and I did. He picked it up and talked briefly. I talked to the kids and they were happy to talk with me. He told me that he received a call to go to Bank of America office and answered questions about the fraudulent activities he reported. He was done and purchased food to the kids and they would be on their way home soon. After we hung up, I told the police that the credit card company would question him on the phone not asking him to come to their office and not to tell anyone. The police agreed. They said if I believed he left with the kids, I should contact a custody lawyer to help me file for full custody of my children granting him supervised visitation. Without him in danger to himself or to the kids, there was not much the police could do. I should get a custody lawyer involved and start the process. As for the money, it would be a civil case. The police told me to continue calling him and if at 9 pm he is not at home to call them back and they would reach out to him. They suggested if I wanted them to talk to him now and I said I wouldn’t want to make think worse. I just wanted him to get home safely with the kids and we will discuss what made him so upset to take our money and leave with my children. After the police left, I kept calling him without reaching him. At 10 Pm I called the police and let them know. I searched for custody lawyer in town online. I opened another browser and searched for private investigator near us. I called one and reported what happened. I was told to call them back in the morning, if they have not returned home.
My husband and our kids returned home after midnight. Each time our middle one tried to tell me where they went, he would shut her up. I noticed it and didn’t want them to talk about anything. I served them pie. He decided to go to work late. I thought he would stay home so that we could talk but he left for work. After he left I asked the girls to talk. They told me that their dad told them it was a secret not to tell me. I advised them to talk so they did. They said they went to many Target stores and their dad bought a lot of credit cards with a lot of money. He put $1,000 on each credit card. I didn’t know what to think and told them that I would drop them at school the next day and would pick them up myself. I made mental note to let the school know that their daddy should not pick them up at school until I know what his plan is. I called the police after I got the kids to bed. I was told that the officers that came earlier left work and another officer was available. I was given the chance to wait until morning to reach the same officers that came home but I requested they send me another one right away. One officer came and during our conversation I told him what the kids said. I asked him what he advises me to do. He talked to my oldest girl to confirm what I told him and she went back to bed. The officer told me that he doesn’t think my husband is trying to run away with the kids. He must have been a victim of a scam. 4 people have been the same day in our town and they were advised to file a report. One at the hospital lost $24,000. Another one lost $4,000. He suggested I talk with my husband and based on what he says, if that is a scam, we should call the police or go to the police to file a report. The officer said the scammer would be on the phone through the whole process and give you addresses of stores to purchase the gift cards and send them the numbers. He asked my daughter if their dad was on the phone a lot. She said yes that he was talking to a woman the whole time. The officer said the police doesn’t call people and said they have an arrest warrant against them. They go arrest the person. They don’t ask people to take money out of their account to send to them. Anytime someone asked you to take money from your bank account or credit card to purchase gift card and give them the gift card number, it is a scam. No government would ask you to do that. If the caller threaten you or you feel threatened, you just need to go to the nearest police station and report what the caller told you. The police would tell you if that is legitimate or a scam. The scammer are well sophisticated to use tactics to make you believe what they say. He said some towns are prone to these incidents especially, college towns like us as the scammers know that foreign students are new to the US and would be easy to target. The officer left and I went to bed.
At 3:30 AM, my husband came home. I got up and asked him to grab a pie and sit down we could talk. He didn’t want to tell me anything. He said he was under oath and could not say anything to anyone. After few tries, I called the police. Until the officer came, my husband was still afraid of the caller and wouldn’t say anything to me. He shut his mouth and just pointed at US Marshall’s website on his phone and pointed at a phone number to make me understand that they called him. I called the police station and requested they send an officer to ask questions to my husband as he refused to share anything with me. I told him that I already involved the police and he better talked to them when they showed up. I told him that 4 people have been victim of scam that same day in town. The same officer that came after midnight came back and my husband told him everything. The police told him that there are apps people use to connect a phone number to an office number or make it look like it. You won’t reach them when you call the number that appear on your phone. That’s why they like to stay on the phone with you the whole time. Further, Government services like the police has booth phone number and any one can call from it. At that point my husband realized it that he has been a victim of a scam. The officer asked him to call the gift cards service number and check the balance. One has $17.98 left. Walmart one has $200. It was not touched. Everything else was $0 balance. We lost our $3,000 and just found ourselves in more than $15,000 credit card debts including cash advance fee. We paid our credit cards debts off few years ago. Some years ago he was subject to a scam that cost us $12,950 of credit card debts. I took us many years to pay it off.
The officer gave us our case number and instructed us to call the credit cards companies and go to our bank in the morning to let them know. After he left, I asked my husband to call the credit cards companies. They said they could not refund us even if that was a scam because my husband took the money himself and gave it to them. They cancelled his cards with planned on sending him new ones.
In the morning, I took the kids to school and let them know that I have talked to their daddy and it was ok for him to get them after school. I took our youngest one to work and left my husband to sleep. The scammer called him around 9 AM and asked him to look for the nearest Discover card office to go do cash advance. Since he tried at the ATM the night before and it didn’t work. He drove to the police and let them know the caller was on the phone with him. The police talked to the caller. The caller asked my husband if they didn’t instructed him not to say anything to anyone. The police took it from there and suggested that my husband block the caller’s number. The police told him that when he doesn’t know a number, he shouldn’t pick it up. If it is important, the caller would leave a voice mail. That was an excellent idea I plan to follow myself.
My husband went to our bank. He was told they cannot refund us. They suggested we close that accounts since the caller has so much of my husband’s information and open new checking and saving accounts which he did.
This incident came in the same month he reported many fraudulent activities on his credit cards and bank account. I wrote about it in another blog. I recommended him to freeze his credit earlier this month after we pulled a free credit report from the 3 credit bureaus. That was good news. That would blog scammers to apply for loans in his name.
That was our ordeal on September 18 and 19, 2019. I am grateful, my husband and our children are ok. I told him we will sit down to plan how to pay these debts. I asked him if he agreed that we can drop her mom phone. He agreed he is going to tell his mom to get her own cell phone plan. I told him that he doesn’t need to go in detail with her. We are adults. We deal with our problems. He just needs to tell her that with him stepping down at work, we won’t be able to afford to pay for her cell phone. I also brought up the cable issue. He told me he doesn’t plan on cancelling cable until he set up You Tube. We will make adjustments to our budget as paying off this debts would set some of our goals back.
Please if you receive a similar call, follow the police advice above and check with the police near you if you should do what the caller said. Don’t be afraid to talk to someone like the police.
Any caller that requests you purchase gift card and send them the number is a scam. Do not fall for it. My husband thought the caller has so much of his personal information, he must be legitimate. The caller knows my husband social security number and his credit cards and available cash advance on them. The police officer said, employer HR has employees’ information and social security. Government agencies have these information as well. The credit bureaus sell personal information to lenders and these information in credit reports includes credit cards and available cash on them. The information could have landed in the hands of the wrong person as people quit jobs and could easily steal some data from their employer for their own gain later.
If you receive a call stating that they were some false claims on your social security and there is an arrest warrant against you? The police said they don’t call people and tell them they have an arrest warrant against them they go arrest them. You can call the social security office yourself after you google their office number yourself. Do not be afraid of these scammers and there threats.
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