Conway Police Trace Uber Account In $36,500 Courier Scam To Phone Used In Identical Iowa Fraud

CONWAY, Ark. — The Uber account used to send two unwitting drivers to collect $36,500 from a Conway fraud victim in July was registered to a phone number and an anonymous Apple email address that were also used in an identical scam in West Des Moines, Iowa, a Conway police detective wrote in a search warrant affidavit returned to Faulkner County Circuit Court on Thursday.

Detective Derek Vickers obtained the warrant for Apple Inc. records on Sept. 26 after records from Uber Technologies Inc., seized under an earlier warrant reported by Arkansas Breaking News, showed the rides were booked by an account with the display name “Donna Erf.” That account was tied to the phone number 805-767-xxxx and to an “@privaterelay.appleid.com” address, Vickers wrote, a disposable forwarding address Apple generates so users can sign up for services without revealing their real email.

“Through police resources, I discovered that the same name, phone number, and Uber account were used in an identical fraud in West Des Moines, Iowa,” Vickers wrote. A West Des Moines detective, Luke Erickson, shared the results of a warrant he had served on Verizon for the number, according to the affidavit. The number came back to a Verizon Tracfone prepaid account “with no identifying information, date of birth, or address associated with the number.”

Faulkner County Circuit Judge Charles E. Clawson III signed the Apple warrant Sept. 26, and Conway police served it the same day through Apple’s law enforcement portal. Vickers’ report of return, filed with the circuit clerk at 9:34 a.m. Thursday, says the search concluded Oct. 14 and that “digital documents” were received. The warrant is case 23SW-26-305; the police case number is 26-0701685.

The warrant asked Apple for subscriber information, the identifiers of any devices that signed into the account, IP connection logs, mail logs and stored content from June 23 through Sept. 8, including email, photos, contacts, Safari browsing history, Maps search history, messages and iPhone backups. Vickers wrote that he was looking in particular for Uber verification emails and ride confirmations linking the Apple account to the Uber account, for anything showing who created or controlled the account, and for evidence placing the account’s user at a specific latitude and longitude at the time of the crime. The coordinates listed in the affidavit are in Clarendon, the town where both drivers said they handed over the packages.

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The information “could be inculpatory or exculpatory in nature, as it may provide the identity of the account holder, other devices associated with the account, verification messages and emails linking the Apple account to the Uber account, and location or map data associated with the owner(s) of the Uber account,” Vickers wrote.

The Conway case began July 6, when a man reported to police that callers claiming to be “First Security Bank’s Fraud Department” told him fraud was occurring on his account and that he needed to withdraw cash so an “FDIC carrier” could hold it for safekeeping, according to the affidavit. He withdrew $28,500 at the Prince Street branch and $8,000 at the East Oak Street branch and placed the money in the back seats of two cars whose drivers each recited the last four digits of his Social Security number as a verification code.

Both drivers turned out to be Uber drivers who had accepted ordinary ride requests, the affidavit says. The first was booked by a rider named “Richard” who never appeared and instead directed her to carry a package to Clarendon, where a young man got into her car at the Shell station and took a Walmart bag from the back seat before leaving in a black Lincoln Navigator. The second was booked by “Donna,” who canceled the ride and told the driver to meet “Donna’s son” at pump No. 4 of a Clarendon gas station; a man got out of a dark SUV with a North Carolina plate, opened her door and took the envelope. Neither driver knew the packages held cash, Vickers wrote. The first driver’s trip record showed a 97.8-mile ride from Prince Street in Conway to 105 S. Fifth St. in Clarendon that cost $74.16.

Vickers wrote that he has been a Conway officer since January 2024 and was assigned to the Criminal Investigation Division in June. The warrant lists the offense under investigation as theft of property, a Class B felony. The affidavit does not name a suspect, and the court file contains no arrest or charge in the case.

Courier scams of this kind, in which callers posing as bank employees or federal agents talk victims into withdrawing cash and then dispatch rideshare drivers who do not know what they are carrying, have been reported across the country over the past two years. Banks, the FDIC and federal law enforcement agencies do not send couriers to collect cash from customers. Anyone who gets such a call should hang up and call the bank at the number on their card or statement.