ALBANY, N.Y. — A Saratoga County, New York, man may have lost more than $100,000 in an international email-based scheme that used fraudulent IRS forms to dupe victims into believing they'd won a multi-million dollar lottery but needed to pay fees to collect their winnings.
A 14-month investigation by the U.S. Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration uncovered a trail of email and bank accounts that led to European suspects who had obtained credit card and bank account information for an unknown number of victims.
Federal search warrant records show the investigation began in February 2011 after the Internal Revenue Service received a complaint that John Patrick Killian, 80, of South Glens Falls, had transferred large sums of money to an account at National Westminster Bank in the United Kingdom.
"The scheme utilized in this case is a form of 'phishing' designed to contact potential victims through email, notifying them that they are the apparent winner of a large sum of money and valuable merchandise," according to a search warrant affidavit signed last week by a Treasury Department special agent. "Those who respond to the initial emails are then told that they must pay various fees and taxes in order to collect their winnings."
In June 2008 Killian started getting emails "from individuals purporting to be from the IRS, Royal Bank of Scotland and the World Bank informing him that $8.3 million dollars contained in a bank account in his name, was available for his withdrawal," according to the search warrant affidavit.
"Based on subsequent interviews with the victim and analysis of 26 suspicious activity reports ... and five currency transaction reports, it was determined that the victim has lost in excess of $100,000 to the scheme," the agent's affidavit states.
In an interview this week Killian said he did not believe he lost that much money. He said federal authorities told him not to talk about the investigation.
"I can't say anything. They told me nothing," Killian said. "I'm going to do as I'm told."
Last March, according to the search warrant, Killian transferred $5,000 from an Albany bank to the London bank account.
The search warrant, which was filed under seal last week in U.S. District Court in Albany, authorizes federal agents to obtain information from the California-based Yahoo Inc. on an email account believed to have been used by the suspects.
Similar search warrants were executed on Yahoo email accounts last November and in January that led authorities to a bank account in London that was owned by Amar Khan, who was arrested a year ago in Greater Manchester, England, on charges of fraud and money laundering. Public records show Khan is listed as a director for a British company, Illuminati Fashions LTD, that also was listed on the same bank account number used in the alleged scheme.
The status of Khan's criminal case in Great Britain could not immediately be obtained Wednesday.
The investigation of Killian's losses is being handled by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Albany. It's unclear whether there are additional local victims.
"We can't confirm or deny the existence of an investigation," said Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Storch, a spokesman for the office.
A spokesman for the U.S. Treasury Inspector General also declined comment.
I do not open JUNK MAIL....period!
One of the oldest E-mail scams out there. If it sounds to good to be true..........
if he does get his money back you can bet the govt will want a piece for all their hard work.
I tell my Mom to tell the thugs that she doesn't speak or understand English and then hang up the phone!
Que? Que? Que? NO ingles. NO entiendo!
We only speak English! That is the funny part.
I give telemarketer calls to my g'kids and let them practice 'phone etiquette' with them and the 'house rules' (no personal information given out, be polite, deflect any questions that are answered with truthful yet evasive answers - as its none of their business).
They still get LOTS of practice. Eventually the child will come back and tell me that the rude (man/woman/machine/person) hung up on them; I assure them that they will get another call to practice with, and the child goes away happy looking forward to the next time the phone rings.
Since doing that, I have noted that our sheer number of telemarketing calls has dwindled.
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via email we never open spam emails and the occasional one that gets through gets trashed immediately and marked as spam for future spam-learning software. Actually I have gotten 2 such emails here, fortunately Todd's-clockwork-system took care of them both. Before getting them I had all but forgotten about this type of scam.
You can never be to young to learn these important phone etiquette skills. Excellent that you are teaching your kid's these important lessons!
I started saving all the scam spam I get the first of the year just to see how many. Right now it's 60 counting the widows and children with a husband or father who was the financial minister of an African country that died in very strange accidents. I sort of can understand how someone could believe they won an email lottery, but who in the right mind would send money for various things when it could be deducted from the winnings.
Most but not all victims are elderly, the obvious prey and I wondered why the FBI doesn't send out occasional emails with a forwarding address so at least the old folks could read why it's a scam. On the other hand one of my scam spams looks like it's from the FBI, but with the return address using a gmail account.
Next to the work-at-home opportunity emails (all are scams) this is one of the most common ploys to steal your money.
Bottom line: one should never have to pay out anything to receive lottery winnings. period. no exceptions.
Treat ALL unsolicited emails as scams.
You cannot win something you did not play! If something does not make sense at all, then why believe it is real? Mr. Killian should have asked his family to check out the email. I remember my aunt once got a check in the mail and it looked legit. She was going to cash it, but then she decided to go to the bank and the bank told her if she would have cashed that check she would've had to pay back all that money back and it was money she did not have.
We need to make sure were looking over our Parents & Grandparents so they don't get taken advantage of by theses scums!!!!!
I just don't get it. Why do people fall for theses scams. You hear about them all the time. I've gotten on or two of them myself and emailed back saying "go to XQS>!!!" I feel so sorry for the people the fall for this. its a shame.