FBI: Global scam targeted elderly, lonely
LOS ANGELES — The relationship between a Japanese woman and a U.S. Army captain stationed in Sy r i a st a r t e d o n l i n e, through an international social network for digital pen pals.
It grew into an internet romance over 10 months of daily emails.
It ended with the woman $200,000 poorer and near bankruptcy after borrowing money from her sister, exhusband and friends to help Capt. Terry Garcia with his plan to smuggle diamonds out of Syria.
In reality, there were no diamonds and there was no Garcia — they were part of an elaborate scam hatched by an international ring of cyber thieves operating out of Los Angeles and Nigeria.
Federal authorities cited the case of the Japanese woman, known only as “F.K.” in court papers, on Thursday when they announced an indictment charging 80 people with stealing $6 million and attempting to steal another $40 million via schemes that targeted businesses, the elderly and the lonely.
“We believe this is one of the largest cases of its kind in U.S. history,” U.S. Attorney Nick Hanna told a news conference.
The investigation began in 2016 with a single bank account and one victim, said Paul Delacourt, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s Los Angeles office.
It grew to encompass victims targeted in the U.S. and around the world.
The woman’s relationship began in March 2016 with an email but soon “Garcia” made “romantic overtures,” according to federal authorities.
A stream of emails went back and forth, with her using Google to translate his English into her Japanese.
A month into the relationship, Garcia told her he’d found a bag of diamonds in Syria.
Authorities arrested 14 suspects, mostly in the Los Angeles area.