Houston man falls victim to scam targeting PPP loan recipients

HOUSTON — A Houston businessman is hoping to publicize a sophisticated scam that caused him to lose thousands of dollars.

Charlie Kriegel is the CEO and owner of WinHill Advisors-Kirby, a residential real estate brokerage in Houston. Earlier this month, a normal day in his fast-paced job came to a halt when he received a call that appeared on caller ID as coming from the Harris County Sheriff’s Department. The person on the other end of the line identified themselves as a sheriff’s deputy.

“Well, sir, you missed your trial, we’re issuing a warrant for your arrest,” Kriegel said, repeating what the caller told him.

Kriegel said that throughout the phone call, he spoke to several people, each “transferring” him to another alleged perpetrator.

They told Kriegel they were investigating fraud related to Paycheck Protection Program — or PPP — loans.

Kriegel believed at the time that the call was legitimate because he had benefited from a PPP loan in the past and because the callers had relevant information. They also emailed him documents that appeared legitimate.

“There was no reason to question that since I was talking to a Harris County deputy,” Kriegel said. “They had my home address, they had my business address, he gave me my PPP loan number for the full amount.”

Due to a recent change of address, Kriegel thought the whole problem could have been as simple as losing his supposed court date in the mail. The impostors told Kriegel he would have to pay $13,500, get a new court date and then get the funds back.

Kriegel was asked to use a secure terminal to send the funds.

“I thought it made sense,” Kriegel said. “Now everything is paid electronically. So I went to the terminal and deposited $13,500.

That’s when the people on the phone told Kriegel that a supposed “red flag” had appeared on his account and that he would have to pay the full amount of $21,500. Kriegel said he needed more time, which the fake deputies gave him in one fell swoop.

“The only thing that gave me a red flag was the fact that he said, ‘you have a gag order not to tell anyone about this,'” Kriegel told KHOU 11 News .

That’s when Kriegel hung up and called the real Harris County Sheriff’s Office.

“And they said, ‘Oh, Mr. Kriegel, unfortunately it wasn’t us, you were part of a fraud,'” Krigel said. “And she said they were getting multiple phone calls a day regarding this specific fraud.”

The scam has spread across the country, prompting several agencies to issue warnings for business owners to remain vigilant. This includes warnings from the Small Business Administration, the U.S. District Court of New Mexico and the Idaho Department of Finance.

Fraudsters use public PPP loan information to find their targets and create profiles around them using information from businesses, social media profiles and more.

Kriegel has since filed a report with the Houston Police Department, which is investigating the matter.

For now, Kriegel hopes sharing her story can help raise awareness and inform others to be on the alert.

“If they can get this amount for me, other people can get a lot more,” Kriegel said. “And any time there’s a scam that can change people’s lives or destroy lives, I think people really need to know what’s going on.”

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