Phone Scammers Extort $3,498 From Man, Impersonate Asst. State AG

Sammamish Police say phone scammers threatened and badgered a 34-year-old resident for over 3 hours and eventually extorted $3,498.10 from him on April 12 while he tried to take care of his children in the city's Pine Lake neighborhood.

A female con artist initially called the home, located on the 22900 SE 25th Place, alleging that he had failed to pay taxes and needed to immediately pay a fine of $3,498.10. The woman, claiming to be a police officer, at first left a phone message on his answering machine and then called again minutes later after he had listened to the message.

She convinced the resident, who had recently immigrated to the United States with his family, that he could resolve the "fine" over the phone and directed him to purchase several cash cards and then read the serial numbers on the back of the cards to her. According to police reports, the suspect stayed on the phone with the man for nearly three hours as he drove to Rite Aid and another store to buy the MoneyPak Green Dot cards.

After he had read off the serial numbers on the cash cards, another person claiming to be an official from the Washington State Attorney General's Office joined the call and demanded more money in order to drop charges against him wife, who allegedly also failed to pay taxes. At this point, according to police records, the victim began to grow suspicious and eventually hung up and called 911.

Sammamish Police later tried to contact the number that was left on the answering machine and spoke briefly with an unknown person, who "began talking in the background in a language that I did not recognize," and then hung up. The officer Googled the number, which was registered to an exchange based in Bound Brook, NJ. The case was referred to police investigators.