![\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/pic-of-money-in-box.jpeg\")
<\/p>\nSan Diego police are warning about an elaborate scam targeting residents \u2014 especially older adults \u2014 after a 78-year-old man lost thousands of dollars in less than a week.<\/p>\n
The victim, identified only as Stephen, a San Diego resident and retired senior volunteer patrol member, said someone posing as a federal agent came to his home and collected a box filled with cash as part of the scheme. Police say similar cases have been reported across the county.<\/p>\n
Stephen said he is sharing his story despite feeling embarrassed in hopes of preventing others from becoming victims.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey had a quote ‘undercover agent’ come out to pick up the money,\u201d Stephen said. “He came out at night.”<\/p>\n
Stephen said he believed he was helping law enforcement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is all on me,\u201d Stephen said. “I should know better, but that\u2019s why we\u2019re talking.”<\/p>\n
According to Stephen, the scam began with an email claiming his banking and personal information had been used in illegal activity. He said he was then contacted by people he believed were federal agents, who told him he could help catch criminals.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of the things they wanted us to do is deposit some money in a federal holding box so they could try to entice someone to come and get it, and then they’d arrest them,\u201d Stephen said.<\/p>\n
Following their instructions, Stephen withdrew thousands of dollars, placed the cash in a box, and waited for someone to retrieve it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey gave me phone numbers, they gave me fake ID numbers,\u201d Stephen said. “I mean, they made it sound real.”<\/p>\n
Stephen said the person who picked up the money avoided being seen on his home security camera.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe guy was smart,\u201d Stephen said. “He could see I had a Ring camera on my front door, so he never came in view of the camera.”<\/p>\n
After the pickup, Stephen said, he never heard from the suspects again. Instead, he found a letter left at his door, supposedly from the Federal Trade Commission, claiming his money was safe in a U.S. Treasury account.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stephen was told to put the cash in a box and have it ready for pickup.<\/p>\n
San Diego police say the scam is particularly concerning because it targets older residents.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s really sad,\u201d Lt. Cesar Jimenez said. “It’s targeting some of our older folks, older members of the community.”<\/p>\n
Jimenez said scammers often rely on victims feeling ashamed, which can prevent them from reporting the crime.<\/p>\n
\u201cAbsolutely \u2014 and they should report it because these people who are doing these scams are counting on that,” Jimenez said. “They’re counting on the fact that it’s going to hurt somebody’s pride, that they’re going to feel foolish about it.”<\/p>\n
Stephen, who volunteers with SDPD’s retired senior volunteer patrol program, said his sense of duty may have contributed to his decision to trust the scammers.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t just sit at home, so if I do something. I want to help someone,\u201d Stephen said.<\/p>\n
Despite the loss, Stephen said, he’s trying to move forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to forget it, because I know I\u2019m not going to get my money back,\u201d Stephen said. “You can’t stay bitter forever.”<\/p>\n
Police are also warning about a second scam emerging locally. In that scheme, victims are told their banking data has been compromised and instructed to cut up their debit card and place the chip in an envelope. A courier then picks it up, allowing fraudsters to access and drain bank accounts.<\/p>\n
Authorities are urging anyone who may have been targeted or lost money to report the incident.<\/p>\n
This story was originally reported for broadcast by NBC San Diego. AI tools helped convert the story to a digital article, and an NBC San Diego journalist edited the article for publication.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"San Diego police are warning about an elaborate scam targeting residents \u2014 especially older adults \u2014 after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":243777,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[74,76,75,28489],"class_list":{"0":"post-243776","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-san-diego","9":"tag-san-diego-headlines","10":"tag-san-diego-news","11":"tag-scams"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=243776"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/243776\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/243777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=243776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=243776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=243776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}