An Ocean Beach woman, 67, cried ‘foul’ on two guys that tried to scam her posing as FBI impersonators and running a classic “bank examiner fraud” on her.
The unidentified woman was allegedly approached by Nenad Videnovic, 22, and Brian John Murphy, 33, at her home in OB on March 23rd. Using fake gold badges and business cards with the FBI logo, Videnovic and Murphy identified themselves as FBI agents. They told her that someone at her bank was defrauding her, and asked her to withdraw money from her account and give it to them in order to place tracers on the cash, and determine who was the culprit. That was their story, at least.
She didn’t buy it. So, she called the SDPD and they confirmed that the duo did not work for the FBI. One used the name “Ross B. Walker”. Our OBcean was asked by law enforcement to play along, and she did. The dynamic two contacted her again at least twice to get the cash.
When Videnovic returned to her place to get the money on Tuesday, the 27th of March, FBI agents arrested him. The other guy, Murphy, was arrested later that same day at his boat in Mission Bay. Both are being held at Metropolitan Correctional Center, and are being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Darrell Foxworth with the FBI, advised people:
“The key is: do not take money out of your account. There’s nothing rude about asking questions. Law enforcement isn’t going to ask someone to withdraw large sums of money out of their account to assist in some type of fraud investigation like this.”
Anyone with information may contact the local FBI branch at 858-565-1255, or submit a tip at tips.fbi.gov.
Here are two local press reports: NBC San Diego and the U-T San Diego.
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Yay! It’s nice to hear these stories when things go right!