Florida woman Zamar McPherson gets 36 months for business email compromise scheme that diverted victims' wire payments

What happened

The U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Virginia said on 13 November 2026 that Zamar McPherson, 50, of Boynton Beach, Florida, was sentenced on 12 November to 36 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, for her role in a business email compromise scheme that stole millions of dollars from victims across the United States. She had pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit bank and wire fraud and two counts of wire fraud, and was ordered to forfeit $154,474.85 and to pay more than $1.5 million in restitution to four victims, jointly with co-conspirators. According to the release, victims who planned to send legitimate wire payments received new account details from fictitious email accounts created by a member of the conspiracy, and sent large sums to personal and illegitimate business accounts opened by McPherson and co-conspirators Garland Shelton, 57, of Wytheville, Virginia, and Olivia Oxley, 35, of Brooklyn, New York, who were sentenced earlier this year. HSI and the FBI announced the case with the U.S. Attorney's Office.

How the scam works

These pages copy a familiar login, payment or delivery form so that a typed password, one-time code, card number or other personal detail goes to the operator rather than to the real company. The address is often a look-alike domain, a newly registered shop, or a free host such as Weebly, Wix, Firebase, Vercel, Workers or Pages. Some kits cloak the real form from scanners and only show it in certain countries or to certain devices. The brand whose name or logo appears is being impersonated and is not involved, unless the report says the page was planted on a compromised official site, in which case only that path is the phishing lure. Open the official app or type the company's real address yourself. If you already entered a password or a card number, change the password on the official site, turn on a new two-factor method, and contact the company and your bank.

Source

Source: https://x.com/WDVAnews/status/2121254969168801870 (@WDVAnews, Nov 13, 2026, 9:52 AM ET); https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdva/pr/florida-woman-sentenced-scamming-millions-dollars-e-mail (USAO WDVA, 13 Nov 2026)