A 72-year-old Philadelphia man who thought he was helping his bank and the FBI instead watched $13,000 disappear into an ATM, according to city prosecutors, who now say they have tracked the money to a Florida suspect. Authorities identify the victim as Greg Sclight and say the con started with text messages and phone calls that pretended to be from his bank and, later, from federal agents. The money he withdrew and deposited at an ATM was quickly routed into a Wells Fargo account that investigators later linked to a 41-year-old man from Florida.
In a press release, the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Office said charges were held for court Monday against Patrick Vassor of Pompano Beach, Florida. He faces conspiracy and multiple theft-related counts, with a formal arraignment scheduled for April 24. “Scammers, who are becoming highly sophisticated, routinely target elders because they tend to have more assets,” District Attorney Larry Krasner said, praising Detective Justin Peyton and Assistant District Attorney Alex Blumenthal of the office’s Elder Justice Unit for their work on the case.
According to NBC10 Philadelphia, Sclight kept meticulous, real-time notes on the calls and messages he received. Those records turned out to be key evidence for investigators trying to reconstruct how the fraud unfolded. Prosecutors also uncovered other deposits into the same Wells Fargo account that they say look a whole lot like similar scams.
How the scam worked
Prosecutors say the setup started in April 2025, when Sclight got a text about a supposed fraudulent charge on his account. That message was followed by more texts and calls that claimed to be from bank staff and then from the FBI. The caller insisted that Sclight needed to move his money into a new account to help with what he was told was a money laundering investigation…