St. Louis woman loses $100,000 to scammers claiming to be FBI

An old scam with a new twist is tricking people into handing over millions of dollars.

A woman in St. Louis got a call from someone claiming to be from the FBI. A scammer claimed the woman’s Social Security number and identity had been stolen. They told her to transfer $100,000 to them for safe keeping.

“The scammers were able to convince her to ultimately wire her life savings to a bank account,” said Josh Morrill, a special agent with the FBI St. Louis field office. “The FBI will never ask or threaten or demand you to transfer money or to send us any money.”

Several FBI field offices across the country have warned about the scam. Victims of phone and internet scams can reach out to the FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3).