On February 18, 2026, police arrested 31-year-old Miami resident Errol Patton for facilitating a “phantom hacker” scam on March 12, 2025, where
- Patton would call his victims, in this case an elderly female from Wallingford, Connecticut, to falsely claim fraudulent charges were made on their account.
- In addition to fraudulently posing as a representative of the victims’ bank, Patton would also spoof his number to match the caller ID of said bank.
- In order to “protect their assets,” the victim will be asked to hand over personal information under the guise of “getting a new card.”
- The personal information collected would then be used to make several unauthorized charges to the victim’s account.
Patton has since been released from custody on a $175,000 surety bond on charges of
- Telephone fraud
- Identity theft
- Larceny by ongoing scheme
- Payment card theft
- Illegal use of payment cards
- Criminal impersonation
- Conspiracy
Patton was also charged as a fugitive from justice and is currently being held on a fully-extraditable warrant out of Cherokee County, Georgia with a $1 million bond.