Managing Editor/Publisher
This is the first story in a series about an elaborate scam which resulted in the loss of $30,000 to a Lakin, Kan., man.
LAKIN, Kan. - Lakin resident Tom Grauberger, 87, started April 1 like any other day - with one exception. He was trying to get his taxes done before the April 15 deadline.
"I was getting ready to do my taxes and as soon as I entered the Website for Turbo Tax, my computer locked up," Grauberger explained. "Microsoft Defender showed up on my screen and said something about a 'problem with this computer'. It said to 'call this number', so I did,"
When Grauberger made the phone call, he said the guy who answered the phone identified himself with an employee number.
"He then said, 'oh, there is a lot of illegal activity on your computer - do you want to report it?'," Grauberger said.
He told the man he did want to report it and then found himself talking to another man who identified himself as being an employee with the Federal Trade Commission.
"He identified himself as a drug enforcement officer," Grauberger said. "He told me there was a lot of pornography, money laundering and everything else on my computer. He put up this screen that said supposedly there were 10 hackers on my computer using my identity to get into illegal porn sites. He said they had opened credit cards in my name and bank statements in my name. He really laid it on thick."
Grauberger's daughter, Debi Leal, said the scammers presented some "pretty convincing identification.
"They sent him what looked like pretty official credentials," Leal said. "They told him he couldn't copy the credentials, but my dad took a picture of them."
The man on the other end of the phone line told Grauberger they were "running an investigation."
Grauberger was asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement and was told he could not tell anyone about the investigation.
"They told him if he told anyone about the investigation there would be a warrant out for his arrest," Leal said
The man on the phone consistently utilized scare tactics to get what he wanted.
"He told me there was $2 million that had been laundered in my name, using my identity," Grauberger said. "He said they need to get my assets together to register them and they would send them back to me in a check."
Leal asked her father how they knew how much money he had.
"(My dad) said 'I told them'," Leal said.
Grauberger said the man asked how much he had in savings and checking accounts.
"I wasn't going to lie to a federal officer, so I told him," he said.
Once the man on the phone had that information he told Grauberger he would need to draw out all of his money except $1,000.
"He told me to leave $1,000 in the accounts so the tellers wouldn't be suspicious," Grauberger said. "So I drew the money out."
Grauberger drew out a total of $30,000.
Grauberger was then given specific instructions on what to do with the money.
"He told me to get some bubble wrap, aluminum foil, duct tape, magazines and a box," Grauberger said. "Unfortunately, I had all of that in the house. He said to put the money in every other page of the magazines. I had eight or nine magazines, and then to wrap the magazines in bubble wrap and then seven to eight wraps of aluminum foil, and then wrap them all with duct tape. I thought he meant wrap the box, so I wrapped it entirely in duct tape - it was very identifiable."
Grauberger was then instructed to take the package to Garden City. He would travel to Garden three times - the first two, the addresses he had been given were wrong. The third one was correct and the money was sent.
"They told him it had to be sent out air freight and over night through UPS," Leal said. "They said it would cost $200 to send it."
Where was he sending the money?
"It was going to a suburb of Boston - Dorchester," Leal said.
The scammers monitored Grauberger by having him keep his cellphone on at all times.
"They were monitoring me from the time I got up in the morning until I went to bed," Grauberger said. "He told me to leave my phone on."
Leal said if the connection got lost, they would call him back.
"They would tell him don't hang up on us," Leal said. "If the connection got lost they would call him back. They would tell him he had to continue to cooperate or be arrested.... At night when he told them he was going to bed, they disconnected some time after that and then the next morning they were calling and it would start all over again."
The threat of arrest was made to Grauberger several times.
"Multiple times during the day they would tell him if you don't cooperate there will be a warrant for your arrest - they had him scared," Leal said.
Once the initial $30,000 was sent - the scammers weren't through with Grauberger, whose family at the time did not know he was being targeted. The scammers wanted more.
Grauberger, a former Ulysses resident, worked for Amoco in Ulysses from 1964 unti l965, before he and his late wife moved to Cairo, Egypt.
According to Leal, her father has continually banked in Grant County since 1964.
Watch next week's edition for more on this story.
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