Eureka Police are investigating a phone scam that cost a 58-year-old Eureka man $1,000. The man had been called by someone he thought was his daughter before a different man got on the phone and demand ransom money, police reported.
The man told police he was called at about 11:40 a.m. Aug. 12, and it appears an AI-generated voice was made to sound like his daughter. The female voice told the man she had been in a car accident before a man started talking, the report said.
The victim said the man told him that he was taking his daughter because she was told not to contact the police and to stop taking pictures of the accident. The man on the phone then asked the victim how much he had, according to the report.
The victim told the other man that he had $500, and the man on the phone said that was not enough. The man on the phone then told the victim to go to the Auto Zone store, 1443 W. Fifth St., and check the air pressure on his tires, the report said.
When the victim went to the store and checked his tires, a red pickup slowly drove past him. The victim, who was still on the phone, was then told to go U.S. Bank branch, 10 Hilltop Village Center Drive, according to the report.
The victim was instructed to put his phone in his pocket without hanging up and withdraw $1,000. The victim was then told to go to Walmart, 131 Eureka Towne Center Drive, and sent the cash by MoneyGram, an online money wiring service, to a fake name, the report said.
After the victim sent the money, the other man hung up. The victim then called his daughter, and she told him that she had not been in an accident and was fine, according to the report.
As of Monday, Aug. 26, Eureka Police detectives were still investigating the case, and none of the money had been recovered, Capt. Michael Werges said.
“We are working on this case, but they are hard,” Werges said. “These kinds of scams are out there. A way to avoid them is by having some kind of safe word to say between family members. If the person on the phone doesn’t know the safe word, it is bogus.”