"Twenty-seven hours later, and nearly $70,000 poorer, White realized the truth: The cops weren't cops, there was never any jury assignment and the arrest with which they had threatened her never would have come to be. But for those 27 hours the scammers, who ripped off the 31-year-old teacher of her life savings, kept her isolated from anyone else in order to control her reality using fear, sound effects and fake identities, she said, to drown out any reservation that bubbled up in her mind."
"The FBI lists this exact strategy as one of the more common types of fraud. Digital scammers, using phones and the internet, took an estimated $16.6 billion last year across the country, according to the FBI. Digital scammers have ripped off Americans of tens of billions of dollars since 2020, according to the FBI. Credit: FBI State agencies have made some progress at penalizing the cryptocurrency ATM operators whose machines make these scams possible"
At about 2 p.m. on Oct 20, a 31-year-old special education teacher at John Muir Elementary received a call from individuals claiming to be Oakland police officers who said the call was being recorded and provided badge numbers. The callers falsely claimed she had missed a court appearance and threatened arrest for failing to appear on a jury. Over 27 hours the impostors isolated her, used fear, sound effects and fake identities to control her, and directed her to deposit nearly $70,000 into ATMs around Oakland, draining her life savings. Berkeley police opened an investigation and reported similar cases are common. The FBI classifies the tactic as a frequent fraud method, noting digital scammers stole an estimated $16.6 billion last year nationwide and tens of billions since 2020. State efforts have targeted cryptocurrency ATM operators, but catching perpetrators remains difficult because scammers often operate outside the area.
Read at www.berkeleyside.org
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