Criminal pretends to be fraud investigator with bank

It is not known how the scammer learned enough information about the woman to approach her with a scam specific to her bank, but after identifying himself, the man asked her if she had purchased Delta Air Lines tickets, which, of course, she had not – because this was a scam.

However, she did volunteer that she had received a new debit card, which the man said had been “compromised,” so the bank would be canceling it. He gave her a real bank address to mail the card to, presumably to establish credibility regarding his association with United Community.

Next, the scammer told her the bank would need to “protect” the money in her account by taking custody of it.

“They wanted all the money out of her savings account,” Calamari said. “They told her to go to the bank, and they were going to meet her Saturday at 11:30 a.m., here in town, to get the money.”

By that point, the woman had gotten wise to the scam. Instead of simply complying with the instructions, she went to the bank the next day and told employees everything that transpired the night before.

With her still at the bank, United Community Relationship Manager Jimmy Nichols of the main Blairsville branch called Union County Sheriff Shawn Dyer, who sent Sgt. Calamari to meet the woman there.

Calamari stayed with the woman – who, as a senior citizen, was likely considered a prime target by the would-be scammers – while she waited for a call from “Gonzalez” for additional instructions.

The pair were sitting with a bank representative at the Customer Service desk when the scammer called back, insisting that she send all her savings to him – only, the man kept changing his instructions, demonstrating in real time what could perhaps best be described as ineptitude.

“Initially, the plan was they were going to come to get (a cashier’s check he asked her to obtain),” Calamari said. “I called 911 Dispatch on the telephone to say I needed some patrol units positioned in (nearby parking lots) in case somebody showed up.”

No one ever arrived to get the money. Instead, “Gonzalez” asked the woman to give the cashier’s check to a teller inside the bank – a teller whom the scammer said would soon be arrested for being the source of the airline ticket fraud.

He told the woman he was watching her every move, claiming to be able to see her via security cameras in the building. Of course, the scammer did not actually have access to the camera system, which Calamari had the woman test.

“I turned around and saw four tellers,” Calamari said. “So, I wrote down on a piece of paper (for the woman to read and ask), ‘What’s the teller’s name?’ Then he changed the scenario again.”

After that, the scammer acted as though he wanted the money deposited into another account, and though the routing number was associated with United Community, the account number he provided was quickly determined to be fake.

So far, the scammer had riddled off multiple scenarios and pieces of information that turned out to be “bogus,” never detailing exactly how the money would make its way into his hands, though Calamari suspects the man would have eventually settled on a wire transfer.

“I think he was trying to devise another way to get the money sent to where he was,” Calamari said. “After about an hour and a half of listening to his statements and stories, I took the victim’s phone and went into one of the private offices.

“I said, ‘Hey, Robert.’ And he said, ‘Who’s this?’ I identified myself as an investigator with the Sheriff’s Office, and I told him, ‘You’re not really good at what you do, so you need to go get a real job and quit scamming people out of their money in this community.”

Sgt. Calamari informed the man that he had his name and phone number, and that he would be looking for him to arrest.

“And then he said, ‘Come find me,’” Calamari said. “At that point, I gave him a couple of choice words and disconnected the call. He has not contacted her since, and I had her block the number off her phone.”

The phone number came back as having originated outside the U.S., and it is unlikely that the attempted theft will result in arrest. But given this reality, the incident ended as well as could be expected, since the woman did not end up getting scammed out of $14,000.

Calamari provided her with literature he uses as part of his public outreach initiative to inform people how to protect themselves financially, and he invited her to his next public scam awareness class.

People are advised to follow this woman’s example; when she perceived something was off, she went directly to an official source to ask questions and express her concerns. Validating info in this way before turning over any money is a strong defense against scammers, Calamari said.

“She was pretty savvy – she didn’t fall for it,” Calamari said, commending her actions in letting the bank know about her predicament.

But not all people are as fortunate. Since November, Union Countians have been scammed out of about $245,000. Importantly, the average amount scammed in any given month has dropped since Calamari first began working financial crimes in Fall 2023.

From November ‘23 to November ‘24, scammers made off with more than $900,000 across multiple cases that wound up in the Sheriff’s Office. That is a significantly higher scam average than in recent months.

And the average amount of money returned or prevented from being taken in scams has gone up, too; in the last four months alone, the Sheriff’s Office has recovered or stopped about $112,000 in stolen money, compared with roughly $270,000 over the immediately preceding year.

Taken together, these figures paint a clear picture that the public education efforts by UCSO are paying off – more people are becoming wise to scams. And the Sheriff’s Office plans to continue those efforts, so be on the lookout for upcoming scam class dates and other information.