Lincoln Police say a 34-year-old Murdock man was the victim of a long-term scam that resulted in the loss of thousands of dollars. LPD Public Information Manager Erika Thomas says last Friday officers responded to a report of a belated fraud that was caught by staff at Nebraska Bank of Commerce in Lincoln.
She says the victim was first contacted in 2019 on social media and after messaging back and forth, the scammer threatened to make a false report unless the victim paid $1,000 a month, which later escalated to $1,500-$2,000 a month.
“Those payments continued until January 2026, with an estimated loss of approximately $150,000,” Thomas says. “The money was used to purchase iTunes gift cards and the numbers given over the phone.”
Thomas says the man stopped responding to the initial scammer when he received multiple letters and emails claiming to be from the IRS, the Superior Court of Justice in DC, a DOJ
attorney and US Fraud Protection. “That correspondence claimed his payments had been financing a criminal organization in Africa and he would be “not guilty” if he participated in an
entrapment operation.
“He was told he would receive money from a victim compensation program if he cooperated with the “law enforcement” efforts,” Thomas says. He was required to send payment for professional services through cashier’s checks and sent three separate $3,000 checks to an address in Oregon, for another $9,000 in loss.
“The scammers used fear and urgency to prey on the victim, telling him the ‘investigation” was highly sensitive and subject to strict confidentiality, claiming he would lose eligibility for compensation if he told anyone,” Thomas says.
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