Thank you all very much !

Hello Everyone,

My good friend Bradley Koehn was Scammed and it could have happened to any one of us. I have never set one of these Gofundme’s up before, but I felt like I should tell the story not only as a cautionary tale but also as a way to help Brad out after what turned out to be a nightmare of a financial loss. Hopefully it can serve as a reminder of how elaborate, clever, and cruel these scammers are getting these days. So, I will try to write this out as he related it to me.

It all began when Brad received a phone call from the actual Bank of America customer service line. The caller in an all-American voice told him that he was indeed a Bank of America representative and that he was calling because Brad’s account had been compromised. He said someone in Ohio had access to his account numbers and was scheduling outgoing fraudulent Zelle payments to a “Vanessa Thompson”. He advised that this was happening real-time and to get to the bank as soon as possible. To make matters even more complex the fake Bank representative told Brad that there was an ongoing FBI investigation involving one of the employees of the Merced Branch Bank of America, and that a certain employee was believed to be leaking customer bank information. The Scammer was extremely convincing and built a very complete story with many details including how much money was in Brad’s account and which bank branch that Brad frequented. He also explained that the FBI were planning to arrest the supposed perpetrator within the bank that very afternoon and that he was there to take care of Brad and help him safely secure his funds by strict federal protocol. Brad was also made to think that he was somehow assisting in a sort of sting operation. Again this scammer was very convincing and smooth not being pushy in anyway just patiently guiding brad through the steps in a calm and professional manner. He also stated that Brad could call the number on his debit card at any time and confirm what he was saying. As the scam progressed the fake representative stayed on the phone the whole-time helping Brad through every step. He helped Brad set up a new account at Bank of America and advised him to use the drive-up atm instead of the walk-up atm as not to attract or alert the attention of the corrupt bank teller. So as many of us would have done and believing he was helping in an investigation, Brad followed every instruction perfectly. Taking all his money out of his account in cash and depositing the cash in an atm into his supposed new and safe account. Just like that all of Brad’s hard earned roofing money and life savings gone in an instant. Many of us have been scammed in some way over the years but to me the tragedy of this scam was the staggering amount the scammer stole. Brad lost almost 20,000 dollars, literally his entire savings account. And of course, hindsight is 20-20 and looking back Brad sees things that are now glaringly obvious. And again, this guy so cunningly contrived and built the narrative with many actual and real details that it was unthinkable that it could be a scam.

When you read this, take a moment and think what it would be like to be saving for life ahead and then face a setback of this proportion. I thought it would be great if we could all pitch in and at least put together some of the lost savings. Brad probably would not want me to do this but it was the only way I could think of to help. I also wanted to make it clear that Brad exhausted every option with the bank on recovering funds. Any amount would be appreciated.