FREMONT — Scammers claiming to be federal and state agents fleeced a man out of more than $2 million over a year after falsely telling him he was being investigated for money laundering and drug trafficking, authorities said.
No arrests have been announced in the case, which was reported to police Sept. 25.
Because the investigation is still ongoing, only some details about the case have been released.
Police said the victim is a 52-year-old man who is a “working medical professional” whose funds were in investment and bank accounts.
The man told police the scam began in April 2024 when he was contacted by telephone and text messages from people claiming to be investigators with the FBI, IRS and Medical Board of California. They accused him of being involved in money laundering and drug trafficking, police said.
He said he was told his assets were being confiscated and the caller convinced him to move them into an external wallet in the form of cryptocurrency, police said.
He was assured the funds were being kept in a safe custody account owned by the FBI and that the funds would be returned once his case was settled, police said.
Between April 2024 and May 2025 the man reported making 17 transactions into the safe custody account of more than $2 million in fund transfers and cryptocurrency purchases, police said.
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Police have not said if the man ever actually met personally with the suspects or saw their faces through a video call.
When the man reached out to the actual agencies directly, he discovered there were no cases against him, police said. The phone numbers the scammers were using turned out to be disconnected.
Police have not said what prompted the man to finally reach out to the different agencies.
The federal agencies who were impersonated by the scammers could not be reached because of the federal government shutdown. The medical board said its complaint and investigation records are confidential and declined to elaborate further.
Staff writer Kyle Martin contributed to this report.
