Eleven people were sentenced to terms from four months to three years and six months for a Hampton Roads scam in which strangers in parking lots talked or pressured credit union members into handing over their phones, then used the banking apps to take out loans in the owners' names. The prosecutors' case page asks anyone who thinks it happened to them to come forward.
It started with a question in a parking lot: do you bank with Navy Federal? Then a stranger's story. He could not get into his own account at the ATM, he said. If you helped, he would pay you through Zelle or…
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Eleven people have been sentenced to prison terms from four months to three years and six months for a Hampton Roads scheme that, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia, persuaded credit union members 'through deceit and intimidation' to hand over their phones, then used them to apply for loans, file disputes, move and withdraw money, and access personal information. The office announced the sentences, imposed between May 5 and September 24, on September 25. The August 2025 indictment alleged the usual opener was a stranger who asked whether the person banked with Navy Federal Credit Union, said he could not get into his own account, and offered to pay for help if he could use the person's phone to send the money. Some phones, it alleged, were held up to their owners' faces to unlock them. It put reports of the parking lot scam in the district at more than 500, with losses of at least $2 million, without attributing that total to these defendants. The prosecutors' case page asks anyone who believes they were a victim to file a Potential Victim Form, and gives no deadline.
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