'You've Won $72 Million and a Mercedes Benz': Phone Scammer Gets 6 Years in Prison After He Made the Mistake of Calling William Webster, Ex-FBI and CIA Director (washingtonpost.com)

Reader McGruber writes: The Washington Post has an amusing story about phone scammer Keniel A. Thomas, who made the mistake of calling William H. Webster. Thomas told 90-year-old Webster that he had won $72 million and a new Mercedes Benz in the Mega Millions lottery, but that he needed to send $50,000 in taxes and fees to get his money. Thomas also told Webster he'd done his research on the top winner. "You're a great man," the scammer cajoled. "You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player, you were in the U.S. Navy, homeland security. I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife."

Thomas's research didn't turn up everything. He didn't learn that the man he was calling was the former director of the FBI and the CIA, the only person ever to hold both jobs. And he didn't know that Webster would call him back the next day with the FBI listening in. Thomas was arrested in late 2017, after he landed in New York on a flight from Jamaica. He pleaded guilty in October and faced a prison term of 33 to 41 months under federal sentencing guidelines. But with Webster and his wife in the courtroom, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday added another 2 years to Thomas's sentence, giving him nearly six years to serve. Howell said that the scam qualified as "organized criminal activity" and that Thomas posed "a threat to a family member of the victim."

Comments

The moral of the story

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get justice - if you are an important person.

Re:The moral of the story

[ShanghaiBill]

You can get justice - if you are an important person.

Indeed. According to the summary, the judge slapped an extra two years onto the sentence because of who the perp targeted.

So we are willing to devote lots of taxpayer funded resources to prosecuting this one guy for targeting a VIP, but doing something about the millions of scammy phone calls that little people face everyday remains a low priority.

Re:The moral of the story

[ShanghaiBill]

it will make make some people think twice before becoming a criminal

Not really. Most scam calls originate outside the US. This "one guy" is atypical, and is not where the FBI should be focusing their resources.

He was also an idiot who provided a valid callback number that was registered in his own name. So the message from the FBI is "We only catch the dumb ones", which isn't much of a deterrent.

What we need is a change to telecom regulations that make call spoofing so easy. Most other countries are far less welcoming to scammers, and have much less of a problem with it. Even India makes spoofing illegal for domestic calls, although obviously not for outbound international calls.

If an entity owns and controls multiple numbers that can be tracked back to that entity, then "spoofing" those numbers has legitimate uses. But there is no valid reason to allow anyone to spoof a number they do not own and do not have a right to use.

Feds: You need to fix the spoofing problem.
Telcos: We can't. It is technically impossible.
Feds: Starting next week, we will fine you $1000 per spoofed call.
Telcos: Oh. We'll have it fixed in five minutes.

Re:The moral of the story

[mysidia]

we are willing to devote lots of taxpayer funded resources to prosecuting this one guy for targeting a VIP, but doing something about the millions of scammy phone calls that little people face everyday remains a low priority.

"Quiet serfs. How dare you question the noble class? Here, we'll add $100 to your tax refund if you stop bringing this up."

Re: The moral of the story

[JaredOfEuropa]

It was added because of bullcrap charges that they somehow made stick. "Organized criminal activity" and "a threat to a family member of the victim"? Come on... This sort of sentencing doesn't seem uncommon in US justice, so I wouldn't say it's because of who the victim was, but even so it is hardly just. Charge him with the scam and hand down a stiff sentence for that, don't add a couple of extra years for so called organized crime or posing a threat. If you think the sentencing for scams like this is too low, petition to have the laws changed.

Re: The moral of the story

[Antony T Curtis]

The usual argument against stopping spoofing is that the average person won't answer the calls from a cold caller telemarketers.
Sadly, organisations like the Direct Marketers Association have more political clout than consumer protection advocates

Re:The moral of the story

[PopeRatzo]

But wouldn't it make more sense to give the smart criminals extra jail time?

Yeah, you're probably right. But there should be some special penalty for stupidity, just as a general principle. And trying to run a scam on a guy that you googled but didn't notice he was a retired head of the FBI and CIA is a level of stupidity that qualifies for special treatment.

Re: The moral of the story

[Shaitan]

It's not just them. We need to stop allowing all the exceptions, debt collectors and political campaigns can fuck off too. They can send letters like everyone else.

Re: The moral of the story

[ShanghaiBill]

The usual argument against stopping spoofing is that the average person won't answer the calls from a cold caller telemarketers.

That should not be a problem. If a telemarketer with a call center in India or the Philippines wants to spoof an American number, that is fine. But they need to own both the originating number and the spoofed number, and it needs to be traceable back to them, so they can be held accountable for illegal behavior.

But spoofing to random numbers in local prefixes, inflicting blowback on the innocent people that own those numbers, and misleading the call targets, should be illegal. It is unconscionable that we allow the telecoms to get away with this behavior.

Re:The moral of the story

[rtb61]

I fully support rehabilitation over punishment but then technically, all sentences should be minimum sentences and if you have not rehabilitated and show now signs of it, you should never be let go. So prison more studio apartments because we aren't total arseholes but you never get set free.

It is not learning your lesson, how to fake rehabilitation for early release, it is hard line full psychological evaluation to ensure very, very low rates of recidivism. In fact correctional services officers should face evaluation and possible penalty for releasing a person who latter commits a crime and certainly the government should pay for the harm caused by a citizen released who was not rehabilitated.

I fully support a 100% rehabilitative system, with all that it implies and that correctional facilities, staffed by professional college degree correctional services officers and run by trained psychiatrists, who properly medically seek to rehabilitate their patients unstable failed citizens and not treat them like prisoners to be punished and turned into worse criminals.

Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers

[AnonyMouseCowWard]

That's great news and I want to point and laugh at the scammer as much as the next guy... it's just too bad the common folk still have to suffer scammer calls (and a minority actually fall for it) with really no recourse. The FBI surely wouldn't help me if I tried to setup a sting on a scammer...

Re:Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers

[jythie]

Yeah, it must be nice to be the type of person with the resources and connections to actually get crimes like this investigated. This is the other end of the two tiered justice system.

Amazing America

[Jason1729]

It truly amazes me that this is being posted as a feel-good story about how great the system works.

When hundreds of thousands of elderly are bilked out of tens of millions of dollars in the exact same scam, law enforcement just shakes its head and says it's too difficult to track down and arrest these people and everyone has to be vigilant. When this power-man with serious connections gets called by the scammer, suddenly the wheels of justice spring into motion in top gear, the next day the FBI is on it and they get the guy right away. The scammer didn't even get anything. What about grandma who lost her $200,000 life savings in a scam only to hear "that's a shame" from the police?

Then, the icing on the cake, the appropriate penalty is 33 to 41 months for the actual offence. And he gets 2 more years just because power-man is pulling the judge's string. What a corrupt system.

This whole thing reminds me of a joke. North Koreans believe they live in the greatest country in the world because the government and media lie to them. Americans know perfectly well they live in the greatest country in the world.

Re:Amazing America

[cordovaCon83]

No, you don't understand.... Hard work is not how you become a member of the elite class... That's how you get shift leader at McDonald's...

Re:Wait! WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a scam? I just got that email 2 days ago! Damn!

And I'll bet that if you had called the FBI they would have ignored you.

Re:Wait! WHAT?

[Anonymous Coward]

This is a scam from the government to make it seem like they actually give a damn about spammers calling you.

Re:Wait! WHAT?

[msauve]

"This is a scam?"

Why yes, yes it is. We're supposed to have equal justice, but obviously unless you're a former FBI director, the system doesn't give a shit about you.

As a prole, try getting any law enforcement to take action on a scam where you haven't already lost a million bucks. Ain't gonna happen. But, if you're part of the government elite, they'll organize a SWAT team to help you out just because you got a phone call.

Re:Wait! WHAT?

[drinkypoo]

If a student says you put glue on their chair and you get away with it that is one thing but the system is completely broken if you get away with putting glue on the principal's chair.

The system is completely broken if putting glue on the principal's chair carries a heavier punishment than putting it on a fellow student's. Crap like that is why schools have a culture of bullying.