SNOQUALMIE, Wash. – A King County man went from having $800,000 in his bank account to being homeless in just a few days due to a scam, family and investigators said.
Bogdan Nalivaiko is a Ukrainian immigrant who made western Washington his home decades ago.
A few weeks ago, he sold his Snoqualmie home. He had plans to move down to Auburn and live off the earnings.
Unfortunately, the 76-year-old lost everything to scammers, according to his daughter, Julia Elders.
“On April 25, he sold his house. On the 26th, he had $800,000 and by May 3, he had zero,” said Elders.
Elders said scammers targeted her father. She said they told him he had won more than $17 million dollars, but he had to pay the taxes to get the money.
“I collapsed. Because I could not imagine in such a short amount of time to lose everything you ever had. It’s an entire life’s earnings,” said Elders.
Elders lives hundreds of miles away in Minnesota and did not find out about the predicament her father was in until he was facing homelessness.
“They got what they wanted. They wanted everything, and they got it,” she said.
Elders said her father was able to take and transfer tens of thousands of dollars at a time from both Chase Bank and Bank of America to pay out the scammers.
“They should have flagged this. And then they said, once I called them, ‘we did everything we could,’” said Elders.
FOX 13 News reached out to both Chase Bank and Bank of America for comment. Officials from both companies said they need more time to investigate the situation.
FOX 13 News also spoke with FBI Assistant Agent in Charge Kelly Smith about this scam.
“I think banks are in the same position as us where they would like to prevent this before it even happens, but the skill set of organized criminal groups does sometimes cause them to be fooled just like the victims in the cases,” he said.
Smith said becoming a victim of a scam can be embarrassing and lead to people not wanting to report their experience.
However, he said the best thing you can do is report the incident as soon as possible– that gives investigators the best chance to collect information.
Smith said always ask friends or family about situations that seem questionable.
He also said people with older parents should check in on them to make sure they are making smart choices with their money.
Find more information on common scams the FBI encounters and how to protect yourself here.
Despite scammers swindling hundreds of thousands of dollars from Bogdan, he said they are continuing to harass him with phone calls.
“No, I’m not talking to them right now. I’m ignoring,” he said.
While Bogdan has faced some of the worst of humanity, there is still some good out there. Joe Kenney, a stranger to Bogdan until recently, has been helping the 76-year-old.
Kenney owns a moving company and met Bogdan when he had to leave his home. Kenney is now working with Elders to help get her father in a more stable living situation.
“House is everything. House is life,” said Bogdan.
Elders is raising money through a GoFundMe for her father.
