On March 12, 2025, the Clallam County Sheriff’s Office in Sequim, Washington arrested Alla Mashkova for serving as a money mule for a Social Security scam where:
- an Indian scammer will call their victim (in this case, a 71-year-old woman) under the guise of an agent with the “fraud department of Amazon.”
- the scammer will then transfer the call to a coworker posing as an agent with the Federal Trade Commission, who will threaten to arrest the victim on charges of money laundering and smuggling drugs through the US-Mexico border in Eagle Pass, Texas.
- to prove their innocence, the victim will be asked to withdraw cash from her bank account, put it in a lockbox, wrap it in duct tape and hand it off to a designated money mule.
- the money mule will make repeated visits to the victim’s home to demand more money and falsely claim that the victim’s phone lines were tapped.
Mashkova was arrested on charges of first-degree attempted theft and second-degree extortion, meaning she will face a maximum of 15 years in prison and/or a $30,000 fine. She is currently being held on a $250,000 bond at the Clallam County Correctional Facility and is due to appear in front of the Clallam County Superior Court, according to her inmate record.