Oklahoma Woman Sentenced For Swindling $1 Million From Retiree

An Oklahoma woman is headed to prison for scamming a retiree out of more than a million dollars.

The US Attorney’s Office says 45-year-old woman Amber Nicole Pickelsimer swindled the retired victim out of their retirement savings.

“They concocted this whole web of lies,” said Josh MacDiarmid, a supervisory special agent with the FBI. MacDiarmid says Pickelsimer of Healdton spun her web of lies online targeting a retired acquaintance.

“In this case, we had a victim who somebody picked up on it, reported it to the police, got it to us we were able to work it,” he said.

Investigators say Pickelsimer created fake Facebook accounts including one with the name of a famous actor.

“At one point the name Bradley Cooper was used,” he said. “Pretty sure it's to imitate the ‘American Sniper’ actor.”

MacDiarmid said it was all a ruse, where the defendant used the fake accounts to contact the victim claiming to expose damaging details about a family member unless they delivered large sums of money to a drop site.

“The subject preyed on the victim,” he said. 

The investigation revealed Pickelsimer kept the ploy up for 19 months with more false personas, demanding additional payments, until someone tipped off the FBI.

“We actually take in hundreds of complaints a day from people who have been victimized in similar circumstances,” MacDiarmid said. 

The FBI encourages victims to report the crime immediately to law enforcement and online at www.ic3.gov.

“We have a team that works 24/7, 365 and can actually stop this money from either going overseas or going into the hands of the bad guys,” he said. “Somebody has preyed upon you and taken your money and while that's not the same as having your home invaded or your car taken, we really want you to realize that us and local authorities are here to help.”

The FBI has partnered with the Oklahoma County Sheriff’s Office, and the Oklahoma Insurance Department to hold a fraud prevention conference on July 12, 19, and 26 at Metro Tech’s new District Center, 1900 Springlake Dr, OKC, OK 73111. Registration is open, and you can attend online or in person.

Click here for more information: or you can call 405-713-1086.