On June 1, 2026, the Racine County Sheriff’s Office in Burlington, Wisconsin arrested Reese Lightner and Carissa Snow for serving as money mules for a “phantom hacker” scam, where
- The scammers will send fraudulent text messages from spoofed mobile lines falsely claiming their victims’ Amazon account was compromised.
- When called, the scammers transferred the line to a coworker posing as “Benjamin Wiseman from the Federal Trade Commission.”
- The victims will be asked to withdraw $48,000 from their bank account, convert it into gold bars and hand it off to a designated courier, or money mule who will hand the gold to a man named “Tom” in exchange for $1,000.
- When the money is collected, the victims will be asked to hand off an additional $197,000 and, later, $380,000.
The two are currently being held in the Racine County Jail on felony theft charges, with Snow being held on a $100,000 bond and Lightner being held on a $50,000 bond.