If you’re a phone scammer, whose sole job is to sucker innocent people out of their money, this is probably the last person you'd want a call.
29-year-old Jamaican man Keniel Aeon Thomas called William H. Webster and his wife back in 2014 saying they had won $15.5 Million and a new Mercedes-Benz in the Mega Millions lottery. All they had to do was pay Thomas $50,000 to cover the taxes.
Of course, the Websters did not pay, and then, Thomas’ calls grew threatening. He described their house, and said that if they didn’t pay him $6,000 he would shoot them in the head and burn their house down. He also boasted that the CIA or FBI wouldn’t be able to find him.
Well, there was just one problem. William H. Webster was the director of the FBI under Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan (1978-1987), and then director of the CIA under Reagan and George H.W. Bush (1987-1991). He’s the only man who’s ever headed both organizations. We don’t think Keniel Aeron Thomas scared him too much.
He reached out to his connections, though unfortunately, even though a criminal complaint was fired, no effort was made to extradite him to the United States. However, Thomas decided to enter the country under his own free will. He went to New York City to visit a friend in 2017, at which point he was promptly arrested and charged with extortion.
Last week, Thomas received a sentence of six years, of which upon complete, he will be deported back to Jamaica. The court heard that he'd successfully been able to scam more than 30 victims, including an 82-year-old Californian who paid more than $600,000, and another who sent him $87,000.
Via Ars Technica