What Happened When Fraud Suspect Tried to Bluff Police?

A suspect in a credit card fraud investigation reportedly tried to bluff a West Des Moines police officer by accusing him of “violating federal law” by asking questions aimed at exploring a case that had already cost the victim money.

Officer Stephen Becker took a report when a 36-year-old West Des Moines man showed up at the police records department to say that he’d been duped, was being harassed and had been asked to make suspicious wire transfers for insurance that supposedly would secure him a higher spending limit on a credit card.

The victim said he had been denied credit after receiving an application for a Visa credit card in the mail last December. This month, he reportedly received a phone call from a man claiming that the customer service representative who had denied credit had been fired for increasing credit limits as part of a scam to get higher commissions.

The caller reportedly claimed he could get the victim approved for a $15,000 line of credit at a 5.2 percent interest rate, but only if the victim paid $700 in insurance – a sum he was asked to send via Western Union at Walmart to an address in Florida. The victim was told to expect his card in about four days.

The money was wired and a series of phone calls followed with more requests for wire transfers. Growing more suspicious, the victim began researching the phone number on his caller ID, according to the report, and a Google search turned up multiple posts about fraud and scams.

Becker called the number and a series of conversations took place. The suspect became increasingly hostile, according to accounts of the conversation, and at one point claimed the victim still owed money for the cancellation of the credit card and his federal income tax refund would be garnished in an attempt to collect.

The suspect claimed he had a court order to collect from the victim, but refused to share it electronically.

“He advised me to do my job and that I can (expletive) off,” Becker wrote.