ORANGE PARK – The phone rings. It’s your bank or the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation telling you they’ve spotted something suspicious with your bank account. They know details about you and your account. They’re very convincing. And persistent.

The caller warns you not to hang up or the money in your account could disappear. They solicit your help to catch the thief inside the bank. They want you to buy three boxes of cereal and withdraw thousands of dollars from your account. Then you’re supposed to remove the bag of cereal inside the box, place the money inside the empty cereal box and give it to a courier at a predetermined location.

Your gut instincts tell you something’s wrong, but you follow their instructions. And once the courier has your cereal box with the money, it’s gone.

It’s a scam the Clay County Sheriff’s Office said has been successful at least five times, resulting in about $80,000 in losses.

“They'll tell them that we need to keep your money safe,” said CCSO Det. Michael Antonini. “After you get the money out of your bank account, you'll go to the grocery store, you'll purchase three boxes of cereal, put the money inside of the cereal box, tape the box shut, and one of my agents will meet you out in the parking lot of Publix. You just hand the money to them. After we finish our investigation, the money will reappear in your account. We'll have the money returned to you.”

Antonini said elderly people seem to be targeted the most. At least three other agencies have reported similar cases, Antonini said. And he said if you receive one of those calls, hang up and call the agency’s non-emergency number.

“I've been in this profession for about 10 years, and so I've seen a number of things,” Antonini said. “This one's kind of bizarre. It really is. I don't know what to make of it. Every victim has told me, ‘I knew what I was doing was wrong. I felt wrong the entire time, but I just went ahead and did it. My gut was telling me, I shouldn't be doing this.’ Always trust your gut. That's the message overall: trust your gut. And don't believe anybody when they tell you you're not allowed to hang up the phone. Just hang it up and call your bank directly. Get your financial institution’s number.”

Antonini said there are applications that can mask telephone numbers to appear as if it came from a bank or the FDIC. Technology can also mimic calls as if they come from the sheriff’s office warning recipients of outstanding bogus warrants. The caller will offer the opportunity for the recipient to pay to make the warrant go away before they are arrested.

“They'll think of something, and we'll be here to investigate it. Hopefully we’ll catch them when they do,” he said. “But they've been successful a few times in this county and we're going to do everything we can. They're good at what they do. Some of the scammers, they have a lot of practice, but we're good at what we do, too. Hopefully we get the result we need.”