I want to post this to make other people aware of a very frightening scam that played out in my home yesterday afternoon. Before you say "You should have known", hear me out.

I was up in my office working and I heard the phone ring but didn't think anything of it because my wife answered and took the phone downstairs. Many minutes later.. like 20 or so, I heard her downstairs crying loudly and begging someone to not do something. I was down the steps and trying to figure out what had her so upset but as I approached the phone she was clearly panicked and stricken with fear. She was shaking her head and saying that the man on the other end of the phone would not let her talk to me about the issue and that if she didn't comply with his demands she would be in danger of being extradited to the Dominican Republic for drug charges coming from an online purchase of phentermine over four years ago. She was uncontrollably upset at this point as the man had told her that DEA Federal Agents were place less than ten minutes from the house and if she didn't comply with the requests of the DA's office immediately they would come to the house and do a search and place her under arrest for purchasing illegal drugs from a group in the Dominican Republic.

At this I took the phone from her and told her to go sit down and calm down. I began to talk to this asshole and he sounded very professional, calm and collective. He had his story down and even had me going for a good while as I tried to pull information from him. As a long time employee of the Federal Law Enforcement world I had some questions for him that in reality were common sense but kind of stumped him for a second. As his story became more clear he stated that my wife was on a list of people that had purchased phentermine from a large drug organization that had recently been busted by the DEA and that they had record of her purchasing hundreds of dollars worth of the drug. (THIS WAS TOTAL BULLSHIT) He said that he explained it to her that in order to get onto a Federal Suspect Protection List and avoid arrest and extradition to the Dominican Republic she would have to send cash to a Western Union Account. RED FLAG! I CALL BS right here!! However still, he presses on with the story and says that he can't deal with me that he must talk to her. He again stated that there were Federal Agents just minutes from our home ready with a warrant to search and sieze our property and to arrest her on the spot if we didn't comply.. ..

I told him to contact his field agents and have them come now as we had nothing to hide and I would welcome their arrival. He told me one more time that if they arrived they would not take it lightly and they would probably turn the house upside down looking for drugs or other evidence pertinent to the case including computers and financial documents. I once again told him to please send them to my house now. He said they were on their way and hung up!!

I called the local law enforcement and reported the incident and was told this has been going around in all forms from telephone calls to email and hard copy letters. We also have a friend that is a Federal Investigator with the Food and Drug Administration and we talked to him also and he confirmed the fraud and that there are tons of these scams going and under investigation currently.

So be vigilant and don't say that I would have known immediately! These guys were good. I'm not gullible at all and I fell for it initially until I drew out some more details. They prey on the unsuspecting and people that are indeed gullible.

My guess is that if it was real stuff it wouldn't be coming in over the phone.....there would be a nice agent knocking on your door.....

We screen all land line calls and if it is not a number we know we let the answering machine pick up. We don't trust anything that comes over the phone these days....the send money was the big tip off. Sorry your wife had to go through that. A nice ride in the car and some adult drinks may be in order.

Always important to be vigilant with unknown phone calls. There are all types of scams out there:

-your family member was hurt in a crash, you need to send money

-your family member was arrested and needs bail, send money

-your friend/family is stuck in a remote area on vacation and their bags/wallet were stolen, send money

-you won a contest worth $10 million dollars but you need to pay the taxes first, send money

And many more. Anytime someone calls/writes you and asks for a) money or b) personal/financial information, it's a scam.

Many of these people are smooth talkers and good at what they do. Don't be fooled! Good heads up, Don.

Matthew

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Yea, me too. I don't answer unless I know the number. 90% that go to the machine don't leave a message.

Sorry your wife had to go thru that, Don.

It truly was a nightmare for her. She is not overly gullible but she has been under a good deal of stress lately so it may have been easier for her to believe that something weird had happened and her name actually got on some list by accident.

Currently we are both looking for jobs and most of the phone calls coming in have no ID with attached to them. I think from now on we will take the stance that unless we can ID the caller we don't pick up. Let it roll to the answering system.

Good to know. I have an elderly relative home alone. She only uses a land phone. I only use the cell. Looking into getting her a private cell number.
I never answer an unknown number. I assume if they dont' leave me a message it's probably a salesman or a scam of some sort.

That is scary stuff, dude... hope your wife has had a chance to catch her breath and realize it was only a scam, however well formulated.

This crap is getting scary... jury duty scams... census scams... this is a new one.

I also agree, if there was a DEA issue, they would come knocking at your door with a door breaker... not call looking for money to be put sent via WU! I mean, bail is part of due process, not something posted in advance of an arrest.

When law enforcement has questions for me they usually knock and announce. No phone calls. Go figure.

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im sorry that they upset your wife don. hope shes alright now. yes adult cocktails are in order. i got a email last week stateing my american express account was deliquent. i emailed backed stating i dont recall having an a/e acount. the email i sent couldnt be delivered. guess that was ascam email.

First hand account. Don't heard that often.

Thanks for the heads up!

Mojo for wifey too.

Wow. The "you won" scams and free cars and Nigerian benefactors are no longer working, so we're onto fear tactics.

Awesome.

I came home to find an official note on my door when I lived in an apartment years ago. It stated that the ATF was looking for me for questioning. It was real, not a scam. I was racking my braing trying to figure out what the hell I could have done to get on that list. I called them and had the meeting. Tunrs out the neighbor was interviewing for a position at the agency and they just wanted to talk to the neighbors about her behavior, activity, etc. Sort of a background check.

Pretty funny what the brain does. I had nothing shady to worry about, but my mind immediately made me think I must have done SOMETHING wrong. That's why those scams work.