One phone call. That’s all it can take to lose decades’ worth of savings.

Millions of Americans fall victim to fraud schemes every year. In 2024, one of those victims was a Wespath participant. In just a few months, he lost nearly all his retirement savings to a well-orchestrated scam.

Wespath recently spoke to the participant’s daughter, chronicling the crime in an effort to help you and your loved ones recognize the signs of a scam and stay safe from fraudulent activity.

[Due to the sensitive nature of the event, our participant and his family have requested to remain anonymous.]

The Bait

Many scams follow a similar pattern: an individual pretending to operate in an official capacity notifies an unsuspecting individual of “illegal activity involving their identity” and tries to convince them to take corrective action to prevent further loss.

For our participant, the scam began with a phone call from an individual claiming to work for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), alleging the participant’s personal information had been stolen and used to make unauthorized purchases. He was told he needed to help with the law enforcement investigation of the alleged crimes.

“The scammer provided my father with the name of a government official to contact, and that name was indeed associated with the FTC,” said the victim’s daughter.

However, the phone number provided by the scammer did not match the one corresponding to the agent on the official FTC website. “People can have more than one phone number, so my dad didn’t think much of it,” said his daughter.

The Hook

Following the phone call, our participant received several emails from the fraudster that appeared to have come from the FTC, with one containing a letter displaying the agency logo.

“For someone like my father who didn’t know to look for common signs of fraud—like a domain of ‘.com’ versus ‘.gov’—the email seemed legitimate,” noted the participant’s daughter. “He also didn’t realize how easily these fraudsters can create a convincing letterhead.”

Afterward, her father continued to receive phone calls regularly. “They seemed to really care. They formed this phone relationship with my dad, saying they’re trying to protect him from being further victimized by the ‘scam.’” she said. “The irony isn’t lost on me,”

One of the early red flags of this fraud was that the scam artist insisted her father keep their contacts a secret, stressing that the process had to be confidential as part of a law enforcement investigation. “They also assured my father they’d never call when he had family over or on Sundays when he was going to church,” recalled his daughter. “They set up these ‘parameters’ to seem respectful, when in reality they wanted to make sure he was alone.”

The Con

The scammers convinced our participant he needed to “secure” his funds, including all the money in his retirement accounts, by temporarily turning them over to the FTC during the “criminal trial” of the offenders.

“They were giving him status updates about what was going on with the supposed arrest of the people who had ‘stolen his information,’” said the victim’s daughter. “There was this elaborate story that went with the scheme you can’t even begin to imagine.”

Thinking he needed to transfer his savings over to a bank, our participant called Wespath for an application for benefits. “What’s strange is [the scammers] asked my dad to leave a very small amount in the account,” said his daughter.

After he deposited the funds from Wespath into his bank account, the scammers had our participant withdraw the funds as cash from the bank and send some of it to a private mailbox. They had him purchase gold with the rest and drop it off at a designated pickup location as a way to “secure his assets.” This was a tactic to ensure the exchange was untraceable.

The Aftermath

Within three months, the scammers had stolen nearly all our participant’s retirement savings. “They told my father they would be back in touch as soon as the ‘criminal trial’ was over, after which they would release his assets back to him,” said the victim’s daughter. “Then their communication with my father began to dwindle.”

When our participant tried reaching the fraudsters, the line was disconnected. “They returned my dad’s call, saying his FTC contact had been in a car wreck and that’s why they were experiencing a delay,” said his daughter. “The scammers also told him he cannot tell his family about this situation, as it involved ‘federal law enforcement activity.’”

After a couple months, the fraudsters notified our participant that he could share this information with his family. “That’s when he told us,” recalled the participant’s daughter. “He still hadn’t realized he’d been scammed, but we knew right away.”

The participant’s family immediately notified the authorities. “I don’t think the reality of the situation sank in for my dad until the police confirmed it was a scam,” said the victim’s daughter. “The realization on his face… it was awful, just awful.”

Our participant and his family have yet to hear back from the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the FTC. Their local sheriff’s department has stayed in touch, but no leads have been developed as of the publication of this story.

Fortunately, with the support of his family and other retained assets, our participant’s financial condition remains stable—but not everyone is as lucky. By sharing their story, our participant and his daughter hope to help fellow Wespath participants avoid falling victim to fraudulent schemes the way they did.