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World Most Tokkong Phone-Scam Victim = ex FBI Chief!

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https://www.breitbart.com/crime/201...ng-target-in-former-cia-head-william-webster/

Phone Scammer Picks Wrong Target in Former CIA Head, William Webster
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SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images14 Feb 2019300


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Keniel Aeon Thomas, 29, attempted to scam former Reagan and Bush administration veteran William H. Webster — it did not go well.
It was the same “advance-fee fraud scam” that has been used to steal millions from unsuspecting people. If you have heard jokes about wealthy “Nigerian princes,” you know the game. The pitch was simple: Thomas claimed that Webster and his wife had won $15.5 million and a Mercedes-Benz in the Mega Millions lottery. All he needed was for them to send him $50,000 to cover taxes.
Unfortunately for Thomas, he targeted a man who spent his entire life uncovering deception under three separate presidential administrations. Webster was director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan, then director of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) under Reagan and George H.W. Bush. At 94 years old, he still chairs the Homeland Security Advisory Council.

Thomas, who identified himself as “David Morgan,” made a series of increasingly threatening calls to the Webster household. At one point he even described the appearance of their home and demanded $6,000 not to shoot them in the head and burn their house down.
Ironically, he told them that the FBI and CIA would never find him. If only he had realized to whom he was speaking. Webster and his wife immediately contacted their intelligence allies, who tapped a conversation with Mr. “Morgan,” and a criminal complaint was filed.
Thomas made things easy; they did not even have to extradite him — he was confident enough to visit a friend in New York, where he was easily apprehended. Thomas almost immediately pled guilty, even confessing to the death threats. He will now serve about six years in prison for extortion before being deported back to Jamaica.
Thomas is believed to have scammed 30 other elderly people on his way toward the fateful encounter with possibly the world’s worst target.


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https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/...d-after-targeting-former-cia-and-fbi-director





Jamaican phone scammer nabbed after targeting former CIA and FBI director

by Caitlin Yilek

| February 12, 2019 12:55 PM


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A Jamaican phone scammer targeted the wrong man.


Keniel A. Thomas in 2014 made a series of calls to a 90-year-old man, telling him he had won a hefty sum and a new Mercedes Benz in a Mega Millions lottery. In order to collect his prize, the man would have to send $50,000 to cover the taxes.

That man turned out to be former CIA and FBI Director William Webster.











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Webster called Thomas back the next day — with the FBI listening in — obtaining Thomas’ real name and email address, while telling him he didn’t have the money readily available. Thomas told Webster he could make a partial payment of $20,000.

About a month later, Thomas called Webster’s home, this time speaking with his wife, Lynda. Thomas threatened that a sniper would kill her with a bullet “straight to the head” and burn down their house, if they did not pay $6,000, according to court records. The FBI was listening in on that call as well.

Thomas continued making threatening calls in the following weeks. He was charged with attempted extortion in 2014 but wasn’t arrested until December 2017, when he traveled from Jamaica to New York.

He pleaded guilty in October and faces 33 to 41 months in prison and fine of up to $150,000.

Webster, now 94, and his wife were in the courtroom Friday when Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell added an additional two-and-a-half years to Thomas’ sentence for the threats made to Webster and his family, according to the Washington Post. The scammer will serve about six years in prison.

Webster is the only person to head both of the nation's top intelligence agencies. The former federal appeals court judge served as FBI director from 1978-87, followed immediately by four years heading the CIA.




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https://www.chicagotribune.com/busi...hone-scam-william-webster-20190212-story.html

Jamaican phone scammer picked the wrong 90-year-old: A former FBI director


William Webster, seen in 2002, is a former director of the FBI and CIA, the only person ever to hold both jobs. He's also a former federal district and appeals court judge. When he called a phone scammer back, the FBI was listening in. (Lawrence Jackson/AP)

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The caller with the Jamaican accent told the 90-year-old Washington man he had won $72 million and a new Mercedes Benz in the Mega Millions lottery, but the man needed to send $50,000 in taxes and fees to get his money. He also told the Washington man he'd done his research on the top winner.
"You're a great man," the Jamaican man cajoled. "You was a judge, you was an attorney, you was a basketball player, you were in the U.S. Navy, homeland security. I know everything about you. I even seen your photograph, and I seen your precious wife."
The Jamaican's research didn't research everything. He didn't learn that the man he was calling was the former director of the FBI and the CIA, the only person ever to hold both jobs. And he didn't know that William Webster would call him back the next day with the FBI listening in. In that reverse sting, Webster obtained the man's real name and email address, while stringing him along and never quite committing to sending the $50,000.
"It's going to take me a few weeks to come up with it," said Webster, also a former federal district and appeals court judge. "I'm as anxious as you are to get the money, but it's going to take me a while to do it."

"You can pay a part in the meantime," parried the caller, later identified as Keniel Thomas.
"How much is a part?" asked Webster.
"You can come with about $20,000 in the meantime," Thomas said in the recorded call that is part of the court record.


The conversation was one of many calls that Thomas made to Webster or his wife, Lynda, in 2014, including one in which he promised a bullet "straight to the head" of Lynda. Thomas was then charged in 2014 with attempted extortion. But Thomas wasn't arrested until late 2017, after he landed in New York on a flight from Jamaica. He pleaded guilty in October and faced a prison term of 33 to 41 months under federal sentencing guidelines. But with Webster and his wife in the courtroom, U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell on Friday added another 2½ years to Thomas' sentence, giving him nearly six years to serve. Howell said that the scam qualified as "organized criminal activity" and that Thomas posed "a threat to a family member of the victim."

"The threat of death to another person is a most serious crime," Webster told the judge, "for which Mr. Thomas is about to pay. ... We truly hope that word has spread into the criminal community of scammers that our Federal Bureau of Investigation and other law enforcement agencies are clamping down on such predatory behaviors."
Jamaican-based telephone scams have mushroomed in recent years, often targeting older or vulnerable Americans and sometimes destroying victims' lives. Inevitably, the caller promises large winnings in exchange for a payment of taxes or fees by the American. In Alexandria, Virginia, an 85-year-old man lost his home and his life savings. A woman in North Dakota lost more than $300,000. A man in Knoxville, Tennessee, committed suicide after sending thousands to a Jamaican group, according to CNN, which first reported Webster's role in the Thomas case. Federal authorities pursue the scammers when they can, but extradition from other countries is difficult and prosecution can take years.
READ MORE: How to beat scammers at their own game »
The FBI was able to document that Thomas, 29, from St. James Parish in the Montego Bay area, collected at least $300,000 with his scam from about three dozen victims, according to court records. One victim estimated that he sent Thomas more than $600,000. In order to cover his tracks, Thomas sometimes laundered money through different victims, having one American send money to a second American before it was sent to him in Jamaica. He provided Webster with the name and address of a man in California to whom Thomas wanted Webster to send the money, according to the recorded call Webster made.

The scammers often pass around or sell "lead lists" of potential targets in America, prosecutors told The Washington Post last year, and Lynda Webster said they have continued to receive calls even after Thomas' arrest. The Websters were unlikely to fall for such fraud, "but it's frightening when they talk about putting a bullet in your head," she said Monday.


The calls to the Webster home started in March 2014, with various men calling to tell William Webster he had won the lottery. In June, Thomas began calling, identifying himself as "David Morgan," a manager with Mega Millions. However, Webster saw that he had an email address of [email protected]. He asked "Morgan" to stop calling, but Thomas not only continued to call but also sent more than 20 emails to Webster. At one point in July 2014, Thomas called Lynda Webster and told her that he knew no one was at her home the previous night. In another call, Thomas told Lynda Webster, "So easy that we go set your house ablaze, how is that? ... You can be taken care of that easy."
The FBI was able to link the Websters to other victims who had reported sending funds to Thomas or interacting with "David Morgan," or who had sent funds to American middlemen who were also victims. Agents tracked payments through Western Union and MoneyGram to Thomas or members of his family, court records show. One California man reported receiving certified checks in exchange for sending "fees" to Jamaica, and wound up sending $85,000 to the scammers even though the certified checks all bounced.
Franz Jobson, Thomas' attorney, said Thomas was disappointed that Howell had added 30 months to the sentence reached in the plea agreement with the government, and is considering an appeal.
Anyone who thinks they may be a victim of a similar scam may contact the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
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