DAYTONA BEACH, Fla — A central Florida woman thought the federal government was coming after her and she ended up losing thousands of dollars in a scam.
Selina Adorno said, “To some people, $19,000 is not a lot. That was the world to me.”
It started with an official looking email that led to threat of imprisonment if she didn’t pay up. Her case is believed to be linked to a multi-million-dollar fraud scheme that’s impacting people around the world.
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The scammers started off telling her she owed the federal government just $250. They later convinced her to withdrawal thousands of dollars in cash and send it to them.
Scrolling her phone, Selina Adorno of Daytona Beach saw the email that started it all.
She explained to Action 9 Consumer Investigator Jeff Deal, “Informing me that I owed like $250.”
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Adorno believed the email was from the federal government and took it seriously. She called a phone number on the email and whoever was on the line threatened her with law enforcement action.
Jeff Deal asked, “What were they saying? What happened to you if you didn’t pay the $250?”
Adorno replied, “Oh, I’d get incarcerated. I’d get incarcerated. They would freeze my assets.”
The person she now knows was a scammer informed her she owed even more than that. He convinced her to withdrawal more than $9600 in cash, scan their cryptocurrency QR code at a Bitcoin machine inside a market near her home, then insert the cash.
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“I’m just standing there just throwing hundreds into that machine in a fog,” Adorno said.
The scam didn’t end there. The crooks convinced her the first transaction didn’t work, and she needed to send another $9000 through the Bitcoin machine. In all, she lost more than $19,000.
Retired FBI Agent Keith Givens said, “If the government reaches out in any way to ask for money, they (the message recipient) should be sure to scrutinize that request to ensure it came from a legitimate source.”
Givens is a cyber fraud expert and private investigator who now runs a consulting firm called IntegrityC4. He told Action 9 these types of government impersonation scams are rampant and the criminals behind them are sophisticated.
“They come up with different ways to hide the money, bounce the money around, reroute the money. So, it makes it very hard for law enforcement or financial institutions to figure out exactly what money was stolen and where it went,” he said.
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Selina Adorno hired an attorney who took her case to the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (FinCEN). Federal investigators determined the case was linked to an international crime syndicate responsible at least $23 million in fraud. The scammers sent her money through several banking systems, payment platforms, and even a Chinese casino to make the final destination of the money untraceable.
Here are some things to keep in mind:
-The government won’t email about things like this
-If they ask you to pay by crypto, wire transfers, payment apps or gift cards that is a red flag
-Don’t blindly trust Caller ID just because it shows the caller is from the government
-Don’t give out your personal or financial information to anyone who calls, texts, emails, or sends social media messages and claims they’re with the government
-If you’re unsure, stop communicating with them, look up the real phone number for the agency and call it
Selina Adorno said, “They’re just trying to scare you, but it worked.”
Adorno recalled the scammers were fast talking and even though she’s embarrassed she was taken in by a scam like this, she wanted to speak out to warn others so they don’t get ripped off, too.
“It doesn’t matter who you are, how old you are, how long it took you to get that money together… it doesn’t matter to them,” she said.
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