An elderly Southern California couple may lose their home of over 37 years after their life savings were stolen in a sophisticated FBI imposter scam.
Peter and Diane Hata recalled the day the scammers first contacted them in February 2025.
“It said ‘U.S. Postal Service’ and I thought, ‘That’s unusual, I’d better answer that,’” Peter said.
Peter, a retired minister, and Diane, a retired teacher, did not realize the painful and costly ordeal that phone call would eventually lead to.
Peter and Diane Hata were scammed out of their life savings through a sophisticated FBI imposter scam. (KTLA)
Peter and Diane Hata were scammed out of their life savings through a sophisticated FBI imposter scam. (KTLA)
Peter and Diane Hata were scammed out of their life savings through a sophisticated FBI imposter scam. (GoFundMe)
“I understand now it’s called ‘Caller ID Spoofing,’ where they are able to make the phone call appear to be coming from a legitimate source when it’s really not,” Peter told KTLA’s Sandra Mitchell.
The scammers posed as FBI agents and presented fake charging documents claiming a New York bank manager had stolen their identity and created fake bank cards in their names. The scammer told the couple that they were suspects implicated in the manager’s crime ring.
As the “investigation” continued, the couple was told they could face jail time if they broke confidentiality and told anyone in their lives about the case.
“These actors were extremely slick, extremely convincing,” Peter said. “In the first video call, he was wearing an FBI jacket with an FBI badge in what looked like an FBI detention room.”
“They were very convincing,” Diane agreed.
The scammer eventually said the couple could clear their names if they digitized their money so that the funds’ origins could be traced and cleared by the FBI.
Worried about possible jail time, the couple complied and withdrew all their retirement savings and took out loans before converting it all into cryptocurrency and turning nearly $850,000 over to the scammers, who they believed were federal agents.
After not hearing from the callers for months afterward, their suspicions grew. They eventually contacted the FBI office in New York and were told that the “agents” they spoke with did not exist.
With the majority of their life savings now gone, the elderly couple said they are struggling to recover and may now lose the home they’ve been living in for over three decades.
In a GoFundMe page to help the couple, the organizer said that bankruptcy attorneys told the couple that, due to the equity in their home, they would not qualify for bankruptcy.
“Ironically, it’s their very equity as homeowners that threatens them with having to sell their Covina home of 37 years in order to get out from under the crushing loan interest, which they are struggling to pay for monthly,” the organizer wrote.
As friends and family work to help support the couple the best they can, Peter and Diane said they are trying to stay positive and hopeful.
“Hopefully, we’ll come out of this stronger and certainly more grateful because of this devastating scam, ” Peter said.
A GoFundMe page to help the couple keep their home and recover from their losses can be found here.
More information from the FBI on how to protect yourself from phishing or spoofing scams can be found here.
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