It has been two years since Nick Jonas’ father was ensnared in an elaborate romance scam, where cybercriminals took off with at least US$1mil (RM3.9mil) 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 US Treasury reached out to Jonas’ 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% of me that thought it could be real,” Jonas said. They had, after all, reported their case to federal authorities.
Jonas emailed the lawyer, who claimed to be with a firm called Edward International Legal Corp, and requested a video call, which the lawyer agreed to do over the encrypted Signal app.
When they connected, 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 Jonas asked for more proof. Could Solis send him photo identification with his legal credentials?
That was when any distant hope was quickly shattered. “The credentials included an AI-generated image of a man meant to look like the guy on the video call,” 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 – US$16.6bil (RM64.9bil) 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 US$3,000 (RM11,736) 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 US$30,000 (RM117,360) 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 FBI in San Diego. “We have seen a ton of law firms being impersonated, and we’ve even seen folks impersonate FBI 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 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 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 Jonas, perhaps because he engaged with the impostors at Edward International.
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 Solis is a licensed lawyer in Escondido, California, though he isn’t currently practising 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 Jonas and surely other victims like his father.
Solis learned what was going on when an investigator with his state bar contacted him; he said they had received a complaint about his impostor’s activities.
“The case against me has been dismissed as due to stolen identity,” Solis said, “but I am still getting these calls to this very day.” – ©2026 The New York Times Company
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
