Right now, today, thousands of people are being tricked into going to their banks or credit unions to withdraw large sums of cash and will give or send it to a complete stranger, never to see it again. Many of the victims are in the prime of their lives, intelligent, and consider themselves to be of above-average ability in spotting scams and scammers.
And each victim unknowingly gave large sums of their life savings to people they had never met. They were instructed to lie. They were instructed not to tell their spouses what they were doing. They were instructed not to trust any other law enforcement. They were told their phones and even houses could be bugged. In their moment of personal weakness, it was them and the stranger on the phone against the world. They were convinced that what they were doing was needed to protect not only themselves and their families, but the entire world!
It is similar to the climactic ending of nearly every Hollywood action film…and for a little while…the victim accidentally gives themselves a starring role in the opposite of a feel-good movie.
Cash Bag Scamming
I’ll call this type of social engineering attack “cash bag scamming” because the defining characteristic is that the scammer gets a big bundle of physical cash.
The scam starts like this.
The victim is usually first contacted by a person pretending to be a legal representative of a prominent retail vendor, like Amazon. They will tell the victim a wild story like that their vendor account was compromised by terrorists and is being used by terrorists to facilitate terrorism. The representative will make up some bogus transactions and ask the potential victim to confirm that these purported transactions were not really theirs.
Of course, they were not. They were made up.
The representative claims the transactions are not being charged to the victim, but says that the FBI, CIA, FTC, IRS, or Secret Service (or some authoritative-sounding federal law enforcement service) would like to talk to them and would it be OK for the representative to transfer them into the call. The victim agrees.
Sometimes it is the fake law enforcement who calls the victim first and there is no previous fake retail vendor involved.
The fake law enforcement person tells the victim about the terrorist organization and how the victim’s account is being used to do terrorism. They tell the victim that all their bank accounts are already compromised. They tell the victim that not only are their financial accounts compromised, and all their devices…and the devices of all their loved one and friends…are or could be compromised too!
They are instructed not to trust anyone and not to communicate the supposed situation to anyone…even their husband or wife.
They are then told that their bank account (or retirement account or stock account…whatever) is at risk of being depleted forever by the terrorists and being used to do terrorism. They are then told that the FBI (or whoever) has a special service where their money can be transferred for safekeeping until the FBI’s takedown of the terrorists is finished.
They might also be tricked into downloading and running a trojan horse program from the caller that gives the scammer and their team access to the victim’s computer so they can see how much the victim has for them to steal.
They will be given a phone number to the “agent”. It is answered by the agent’s call center, where a person identifies themself as the FBI (or whoever) and that reception person gets them to the agent for further handling. They may be sent official-looking paperwork with the law enforcement agency’s logo.
They are then instructed to physically go into their bank and withdraw a lot of cash. They are coached in what to say and how to do it. The scammers know what the banks are looking for to stop these types of scams, so they coach the victims on how to avoid being stopped.
You might be saying there is no way that anyone could fall for this scam. But thousands of people a day do. It could be you…before you read about this today. It could be your parents or grandparents. It could be a relative or a friend. But it is happening everywhere, every day in the U.S. and has been for years. It is only picking up steam. I hear from victims and relatives of victims all the time. It has impacted my own extended family, and we are not even sure how many tens of thousands of dollars are missing.
Note: Here is my article on Anyone Can Be Scammed: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/anyone-can-scammed-phished-examples-roger-grimes-dyire/.
Here are examples that made it to the media:
- https://nypost.com/2024/02/15/business/ny-magazines-financial-advice-columnist-lost-50k-to-scam/
- https://www.thecut.com/article/amazon-scam-call-ftc-arrest-warrants.html
- https://www.reddit.com/r/Scams/comments/1jg6ztf/us_my_mom_handed_over_30k_cash_over_two_days_to/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tvBCYfxSXz8
When I say we will have thousands of victims a day, I think the true number may be in the tens of thousands…per day! My local average-sized bank branch says they stop one to three of these scams from happening every day! Just in one branch. And there are over 100,000 bank and credit union branches. Do the math.
That does not count how many victims they do not stop and save.
The victims are coached to lie and make up “normal” stories about why they want the cash. They are often instructed to keep open calls to the attacker on their cell phones while at the bank so the attacker can validate the transaction and coax the victim into getting the money.
When they get the money, they are often instructed to hand it to a stranger who will be picking it up in some “unmarked” vehicle. Or it is picked up by a private or commercial packaging service. Or they are instructed to go to FedEx or UPS and mail it. One victim was instructed to place the cash inside of a Reader’s Digest magazine, tape it shut, put lots of aluminum foil around it (to prevent security scans from seeing the cash), place it in a box with other light, but bulky, objects that might obscure radiation scans, and mail it.
It could take hours to days for the victim to figure out they have been scammed. Oftentimes, it is because their money is gone and the “agent” is no longer accepting their calls. As it dawns on them that they have been scammed, most go through a drastic mental shock. They shut down. Some will not tell family, will not share details. As the adrenaline wears off, some cannot remember all the details or are too embarrassed to share. I know people who know their parent or spouse has been scammed out of tens of thousands of dollars, but cannot get information out of the victim beyond what the concerned spouse or relative can find out themselves.
Recovery
Recovery is firstly all about seeing if you can get all or some of the money back. Good luck! I do know of many cases where the bank, credit union, or money delivery service caught the fraud and stopped it. Oftentimes, the victim yelled and cursed them. In their view, the victim is saving the world and their loved ones, you see.
If you are in the US, you can and should report the theft to the local police and report it to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) (https://www.usa.gov/where-report-scams).
Provide emotional support/love/friendship to anyone you know who is going through this. The victim will be going through a rough emotional time. If there is ever a time when they need a friend who will mostly listen without judgment, it is this. I have heard of a lot of victims who were so embarrassed and ashamed that they fell for the scam, they did not tell anyone, not even their spouse. Their spouse only found out when they needed to access the account or money and it was gone.
If you are counseling the victim and you can see they are ashamed of falling for the scam, tell them that anyone can fall for a scam and that it was not their fault. Tell them a 36-year cybersecurity professional who teaches 24/7 about scams and written 15 books on cybersecurity including one on scams said, “Anyone can be scammed. He said anyone can be scammed. A brilliant Nobel-prize-winning physicist was scammed out of $2 million. Doctors, lawyers, and computer security professionals get scammed all the time. He said anyone disagreeing with him on this fact is just wrong.”
Possibly get a mental health professional involved if the emotional shame seems severe. Error on the side of offering and getting professional help.
If you are related to the victim and think the victim might have some mental cognition issues, get a medical professional involved and start down that path. You might be at a point where you need to talk to a lawyer about getting the victim some legal financial oversight.
Prevention
Education about these types of scams is key. Share this article and some of the examples and common traits. Let any learner know that the U.S. government or law enforcement will never ask you to hand them a bag of money on the street or ask you to mail them cash. No one legit will ever ask you to go to a bank and keep your cell phone open to a live call so they can hear it. No law enforcement will ask you to lie to withdraw cash.
This sounds like such simple-stupid advice…but there are thousands of people scammed every day that hear those commands and believe it. Sadly, these scams often focus on the elderly. Some elderly victims have been scammed multiple times or will be scammed again (with a different scenario, usually).
Banks and credit unions are trying to do their best. Kudos to them. After years of almost unknowingly supporting a ton of fraud, banks and credit unions are very aware of what is going on and are trying their best to help customers avoid being scammed.
When I recently tried to withdraw a large sum of cash for a party I was holding, the teller motioned for the manager to come over and talk to me. She asked me about why I was doing it and a few relevant questions. I told her that I worked for a company that tried to prevent these scams and thanked her for her service. It’s how I found out my local branch was blocking 1-3 scams a day.
Every teller and manager of every branch is highly aware of these scams and will often try to question potential victims anytime someone withdraws large sums of cash. But the scammers are also coaching the potential victims in what to say…i.e., “I’m renovating my house”, “I’m buying a new car!”, “I’m traveling overseas”, etc. Victims will jump through lots of hoops and lie like Hollywood actors to the bank and credit union employees who are just trying to help them not lose their money forever. Every teller can share multiple stories of a victim yelling loudly at them because the teller prevented the withdrawal and scam from happening. They rarely get thanked. So, give extra thanks to your teller the next time you visit a branch.
Put an alert on your account so that even if your spouse gets the money, you will know.
It is always good to research any phone number you are given by a stranger before calling it. An Internet search is not always perfect in telling you if the number you are thinking about dialing is legit or not, but it cannot hurt.
This scam has been going on for years, but the scammers are making a lot of money and finding more victims. Share the information and save someone from a whole lot of financial stress.
