“I’m a man of God”: Tactics from the latest social media scam

Phone with text message from a man pretending to be former US Attorney General Eric Holder

BY KERRY TOMLINSON, AMPERE NEWS

July 13, 2022

If you get a suspicious message from a friend on social media, you might ask questions to see if it's really them.

But what if the scammers have the right answers?

In the latest scam on Instagram and Facebook, some of the tricksters come prepared with detailed info from your friends' social media accounts.

The goal: to trick you out of info and money. And they'll lie to you and swear at you until they get it.

Watch here:

Odd Message

The message from my friend Amy (name changed) on Instagram didn't sound right.

"Good evening. How are you doing today?" she asked.

It wasn't the real Amy. Time to test the scammers.

I asked if she had talked to her father, who had actually passed away three months ago. But the scammer had answers.

"Common Kerry my account wasn’t hacked ok we both know he passed away 😂."

Lowering the boom

Then came the scam. She claimed she got a $50,000 grant from the government and urged me to get one, too.

She said she heard about the grant from a friend of ours, a real name of a real person we know. The scammer had clearly pored over my friend's real social media before launching the trap.

For the grant, she sent me to a fake Facebook page for Loretta Lynch, former U.S. Attorney General. It claimed to be her personal blog page, though they misspelled her name as "Lorreta" instead of "Loretta."

Choose your fee

Message Fake Loretta as instructed, and she'll send you documents showing a grant announcement from the U.S. Department of Human and Health Services. It says the grant money is yours to keep and never needs to be repaid.

You fill out the application with personal information (that can and will be used against you in future scams) and after some notifications designed to add some drama, you're approved!

All you have to do to get the grant is pay a fee for delivery of the case file via FedEx. She sends a handy chart so you can choose how much you want to pay for the grant you want. I opt to pay a $4,500 delivery fee for a $300,000 grant. Must be a pretty heavy case file.

Reality Check

As we know, it's a scam.

The real Department of Health and Human Services confirms to Ampere News that "Lorreta's" documents are not real.

Plus, they don't do grants through any other site except this one, grants.gov. And you don't need to pay money to get a grant.

Complaints

Unfortunately, some people are falling for this kind of scheme.

A report on the Better Business Bureau site shows complaints about a company called American Hope Resources. People say friends and family members messaged them with the news of grant money and sent links to the company. In some cases, they lost thousands and never received a grant.

A victim on the fraud reporting site Scam Pulse describes what happened in their case.

"A friend encouraged me to apply for a grant through the American Hope Resources," they wrote. "I gave personal information and even a so called certificate fee to receive the grant money."

"When they asked for another fee I contacted my friend with concerns. She said it was all legitimate and not to worry," they wrote. "I thought I could trust my friend. And now I have had my money and personal information stolen."

American Hope Resources gets an 'F' rating with the BBB. The company says scammers are impersonating them, though they refused to identify who's actually running their company, according to the BBB report.

Still scamming

Back with our scammers, I ask the false Loretta Lynch to call us to verify that she's legit.

She says --- in all caps --- that federal grant employees are not allowed to make calls because with direct access to phones, they'll give all the grants to their friends and family instead of the public.

"CALLS ARE NOT ALLOWED BECAUSE THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT BELIEVES IF CALLS ARE ALLOWED WE WILL ONLY MAKE THE BENEFIT TO OUR FAMILIES AND FRIENDS ALONE."

Phones are just too dangerous!

Call or no pay

I insist on a call before I'll send the money. Soon a person claiming to be former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder rings me up.

Fake Eric: "I am Attorney General Eric Holder. From the grant program."

You'll notice he sounds nothing like the real former Attorney General Eric Holder, as heard in this video from the 10-year anniversary of 9/11. To expose the scam, we ask fake Eric a question.

Kerry: "Who appointed you?"

Suddenly, fake Eric can't hear anymore.

Fake Eric: "Hello?"

Soon, he hangs up.

Second Try

He calls back, but this time he's not so genial.

Fake Eric: "You are not getting me right."

Kerry: "Why are you lying?"

Fake Eric: "What do you mean, 'Why am I lying?' No one is lying."

"Calm down, ma'am. You need to calm down and understand what I'm telling you."

Kerry: “Why are you scamming people?"

Fake Eric: "Scamming people? What f---ing do you mean by scam?"

"I got enough for my job so I don't do that s---. I'm a man of God."

Kerry: "Do men of God lie for money?"

Fake Eric: "No, I don't do that."

Kerry: "And yet you are."

Fake Eric: "You're messing things up."

Kerry: "I'm messing things up by comparing you to the real Eric Holder?"

Fake Eric: (Hangs up).

More Tactics

The fake friend scammers use other tactics as well if you catch them in a lie in their messages.

They'll claim they made a typo. Or they'll turn the tables and ask you why you are acting strangely. They may say THEY are the ones who don't trust YOU and you need to prove who you are.

"How do we know each other?" they'll ask.

Don't give in to their tricks. Don't click on their links. And do report their account to Instagram or Facebook before they move on from you to the rest of your friends and family.

Hacked?

The scammers don't need to hack people's social media accounts to carry out this scam. They can simply steal your pictures and name and create an Instagram account pretending to be you.

Then they can message your contacts on Facebook directly from Instagram. That's more effective than creating a fake Facebook page of you because your friends and family can spot a copied Facebook page more easily.

It's a good reminder that --- even if the name and picture looks like your friend --- it could be a clone out to steal your money and passwords. Take that extra second to check them out before answering.

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