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'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)

Posted by msmash on from the oooops dept.

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."

7 of 169 comments (clear)

  1. The moral of the story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

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

    1. Re:The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:The moral of the story by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.

  2. Glad to hear, to bad the common person suffers by AnonyMouseCowWard · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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...

  3. Amazing America by Jason1729 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

    1. Re:Amazing America by cordovaCon83 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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...

  4. Re:Wait! WHAT? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.