It has been two years since Nick Jonas’s father was ensnared in an elaborate romance scam, where cybercriminals took off with at least $1 million of his savings. His father, now 81, had clung to the idea that the scammers were legitimate — but, in time, he eventually entrusted his financial affairs to his son, who wanted to protect his parents from further damage.
Then came a glimmer of hope.
Just a few months ago, a lawyer who claimed to work with the financial crimes arm of the U.S. Treasury reached out to Mr. Jonas’s father with the type of news that every scam victim yearns to hear: Law enforcement was working on the case, and it might be able to recover his money.
“There was maybe 10 percent of me that thought it could be real,” Mr. Jonas said. They had, after all, reported their case to the federal authorities.
Mr. Jonas emailed the lawyer, who claimed to be with a firm called Edward International Legal Corporation, and requested a video call, which the lawyer agreed to do over the encrypted Signal app.
When they connected, Mr. Jonas was greeted by the lawyer, a bespectacled young man sitting behind a desk who claimed his name was Dennis John Solis. An American flag stood on the floor behind his shoulder, and several framed certificates hung on the wall.
He was fairly convincing, but Mr. Jonas asked for more proof. Could Mr. Solis send him photo identification with his legal credentials?
That was when any distant hope was quickly shattered. “The credentials included an A.I.-generated image of a man meant to look like the guy on the video call,” Mr. Jonas said, “and that’s when I immediately knew it was a scam.”
This type of fraud is known as a recovery scam, a common ruse used by cybercriminals who try to exploit the victims’ desire not only to get their money back but to reverse, or somehow rewrite, this often dark and devastating chapter in their lives. Given the enormous sums that victims are increasingly losing in individual scams — $16.6 billion in losses were reported in 2024, at minimum — they are more likely to shell out even more money in hopes of a recovery.
“We’re seeing recovery scams even more frequently,” said Amy Nofziger, senior director of fraud victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network. If you’ve lost $3,000 to a scheme, she explained, you’re less likely to go to great lengths to recover it. But “if you had a million stolen, you’re more likely to be like, ‘OK, well, I’m going to try to spend $30,000 to get it back.’”
But recovering stolen funds is extremely challenging to begin with, and typically requires law enforcement’s help.
Retargeting Victims
There are a variety of ways the recovery scammers find victims, but in some cases, it’s the same criminal syndicate retargeting the same people.
“The danger of these, of course, is that scammers already know a lot about that particular victim’s circumstances and, using that information, can frame their pitch to that victim to make it more legitimate, for example by mentioning the investment platform the victim lost money from,” said Scott Norris, a special agent with the F.B.I. in San Diego. “We have seen a ton of law firms being impersonated, and we’ve even seen folks impersonate F.B.I. agents and other federal law enforcement.”
In other recovery schemes, criminals sell lists of victims’ names and personal details to another group of perpetrators for further exploitation.
Some criminal groups wait for victims to find them: Bogus recovery firms, often offering free consultations, advertise their services online — and when victims search for ways to recover their money, they’ll sometimes show up at the top of their search results.
Scammers also strategically plant information in the comment sections of related posts and articles on social media, for example. The commenter might pretend to be a victim who has been helped by a particular recovery firm or lawyer — and suggest others contact them.
A Flurry of Texts
The Jonases aren’t exactly sure how the recovery fraudsters found them. But late last year, around the time Mr. Jonas connected with Edward International, he said, it felt as if his father’s name had landed on a marketing list, and his phone began buzzing with scam solicitations promising to recover his money.
That was when Mr. Jonas visited his parents with a singular mission: Sever all technological ties from the scammers, and start anew. He deleted several apps from his father’s phone (including WhatsApp and Telegram), changed his email and phone number and updated important accounts with his father’s new contact details (Medicare and Social Security, for example).
But that hasn’t stopped the scammers from targeting the younger Mr. Jonas, perhaps because he engaged with the imposters at Edward International.
Most recently, he received a text with a photo of his father’s driver’s license: “Good morning. May I confirm this is you?”
“We are contacting you to follow up on a case in which you may have been a victim of a cross border fraud,” it said. “This matter is very important.”
It went on to claim that a Cambodian criminal group running large-scale cryptocurrency schemes had been largely shut down (which appears to be related to recent news developments), and that the Department of Justice had set up an “emergency refund website.”
“We need you to provide further confirmation information and verify your identity in order to assist you with the refund process.”
Mr. Jonas continues to block and report these messages as spam, which arrive several times a week. But it’s reaching a point where he’s likely to change his own number.
The Other Victim
That’s what another victim of Edward International, the fake recovery firm, had to do. Except in his case, the criminals behind the operation assumed his name: Dennis John Solis.
The real Mr. Solis is a licensed lawyer in Escondido, Calif., though he isn’t currently practicing and is working for a nonprofit. But the identity thief began using his name and license number with the California bar to reach out to Mr. Jonas and surely other victims like his father.
Mr. Solis learned what was going on when an investigator with his state bar contacted him; he said they had received a complaint about his imposter’s activities.
“The case against me has been dismissed as due to stolen identity,” Mr. Solis said, “but I am still getting these calls to this very day.”
So many calls, in fact, that he got a new phone number for his California bar profile page, with an outgoing message: “If you’re calling regarding a message or communication from Edward International Legal Corporation, please be aware that this is a scam.”
Tips for Online Crime Victims
• Report crimes to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.IC3.gov; the Secret Service’s local field offices can also help.
• The F.B.I. will never ask for money, move communications to private messaging apps or request bank account details or personal identifying information.
• If the F.B.I. has identified you as a potential victim, representatives will reach out via email or phone.
• Agents who call by phone will voluntarily (or at the request of the victim) provide a way to verify their identity. But if you’re still unsure, contact your local F.B.I. field office, which can help confirm the agent’s identity.
Tara Siegel Bernard writes about personal finance for The Times, from saving for college to paying for retirement and everything in between.
The post His Father Lost His Life’s Savings in a Scam. A Fake Lawyer Offered to Help. appeared first on New York Times.
