The local FBI office helped investigate the case involving a Guam woman who scammed some $3.5 million out of her victims. We spoke exclusively with the special agent in charge of the regional office, Steven Merrill, who said the pandemic has spurred more of these types of global internet scams.

Special Agent Merrill declined to discuss the specifics of the case but in general, he said scammers are constantly on the lookout for unwitting victim.

"And of course in these covid times a lot of people are out of work and a lot of people are looking for financial opportunities," he said. So the criminals, in this case, offered up some lucrative returns on investment if you will, and victims entered into this agreement with the hope of getting money back but unfortunately, the victims lost their funds as a result of this scheme."

He said the scammers are more successful if they can recruit accomplices on the ground.  

"A lot of times these criminals will enable local citizens to help them in this effort," he said. "What this highlights again is that when a potential victim sees someone not just online and who they don’t know and but someone they actually know personally, and that person comes to them with an offer, it is much more believable scheme than seeing someone random person anonymously on the internet."

While local accomplices are more easily prosecuted, Merrill said the FBI also has the global resources to go after the big fish.

"We’re looking for the people that are organizing these schemes and are potentially victimizing people all over the world, including in Guam," he said. "So yes, our goal is to target these kingpins and hopefully with the help of the United States Attorneys Office, charge these people with crimes and if we’re able to do that arrest them and make sure that justice is served."

"It's incumbent upon the victims to notify us as soon as possible so that we can start those efforts," Merril said. "We have great relationships with banks around the world and they also don’t wanna see their clients robbed of their own money. The FBI will act as soon as we get any complaint about these frauds, but I’m more concerned about making sure the people don’t give the money so we don’t have to open these cases."

And Merrill agrees with that old adage: if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.