Imagine being scammed out of over half a million dollars. That is exactly what happened to one Sioux Falls man after he fell victim to series of phone call scams recently.

Dakota News Now is reporting the story of an 82-year-old Sioux Falls man who is now out over half a mill after a group of jackwad phone scammers posing to be representatives of three government agencies scammed him out of nearly $550,000.

Sioux Falls Police spokesperson Sam Clemens told Dakota News Now the victim received a call from a scammer claiming to be from the IRS. The caller said drugs had been found in the victim's car and that the victim needed to send them money to “clean this up.”

Additional phone calls by scammers were placed to the victim in subsequent days. This time the callers claimed to be from the DEA and FBI. Clemens said the scammers got the victim to send them money through a series of wire transfers and gift cards.

According to Dakota News Now, a concerned family member became aware of the situation and notified authorities.

Initially, the victim was hesitant to talk to the police because the scammers told him not to mention this situation to anybody else. Officers were eventually able to convince the victim he was being scammed because the tactics being used by the scammers were not something the IRS, DEA, or FBI would do in a situation like this.

Clemens said, “The scammers, in this case, were very good convincing him that this is real.”

Whoever the scammers are, they are very good at their craft. Dakota News Now reports the scammers cloned phone numbers from different regions that were used in the various calls placed to the victim.

At this time, police are following up on a few leads involving the case as they attempt to track down where the calls originated from.

Source: Dakota News Now

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