A Portsmouth woman told police she was scammed out of $18,000 after someone claiming to be with the FDIC convinced her to withdraw cash from her bank account and mail it to Georgia.
The woman came to Portsmouth police wanting to file a theft report.
She told officers she received an email that appeared to be part of the scam. She was then contacted by someone claiming to be “Greg Biel” from the FDIC.
The scammer told her that $18,000 had been deposited into her bank account by mistake and that she needed to withdraw the money and mail it back.
Police said the woman never checked her account to confirm whether that was true.
Instead, she withdrew the money and sent the cash by UPS to Georgia.
The woman later spoke with her bank, but the bank told her it would not refund the money because she had withdrawn the cash herself and sent it to an unknown person.
Police said the woman did not have her banking information available because her account was locked.
Officers documented the incident.
This is a classic “fake government agency” scam.
The scammer pretends to be from a trusted agency, bank, fraud department, law enforcement office, or federal agency. They create panic, tell the victim something urgent has happened, and then push them to act before they stop and think.
In this case, the story was that money had been accidentally placed in the woman’s account.
That is the bait.
The trap is getting the victim to withdraw real money and send it away through UPS, FedEx, wire transfer, gift cards, cryptocurrency, or another method that is hard to reverse.
Real banks and federal agencies do not call or email and tell people to withdraw thousands of dollars in cash and mail it to another state.
They also do not ask for gift cards, Bitcoin, wire transfers, or “safe account” payments.
If someone claims money was accidentally deposited into your account, do not move it. Do not withdraw it. Do not mail it.
Hang up, stop emailing, and contact your bank using the number on your debit card or official bank statement. Do not use a phone number or link sent by the person who contacted you.
Before sending money, ask one simple question:
Why would a real federal agency need me to mail cash?
The answer is: it wouldn’t.