A beloved Hawaiian TV news anchor has revealed how scammers conned her out of $60,000. Linda Coble, 79, said she fell victim to a scam after being told over the phone that she had won $5.5 million.
Coble, who made history when she became Hawaii’s first female TV anchor in 1971, first received a call in March from a man who identified himself as 'Mike Diamond' claiming to be from the US Customs Office. Coble told Hawaii News Now that Diamond told her he was acting as a representative on behalf of a popular contest from which she had won $5.5 million.
She said: 'I had won the sweepstakes at Publishers Clearing House, $5.5 million. And before they send me the check, I had all these steps to go through.' Over the next few weeks, Diamond had her send checks and money orders to cover taxes and fees related to the bogus prize, telling her to keep the whole thing secret.
Coble said the man won her over with his 'consistency' and 'friendship', adding: 'He was very friendly on the phone, would call pretty much daily.' She also received letters and emails from others pretending to be colleagues of his from both the IRS and the U.S. Marshals Office.
Coble told the outlet that she never once felt the need to verify any identities, saying: 'I trusted them. They did a wonderful job of building that kind of familial kind of relationship through all the steps of my spending my money in order to win my prize that would be unveiled at the Bank of Hawaii.'
She showed the outlet a cashier's check for $5.5 million that was mailed to her by the scammers; her bank told her it was a 'phony'. Coble added: 'I was overwhelmed with kindness, support, encouragement, excitement constantly from the scammers, and I didn’t realize that I had already made such a mistake. I was embarrassed to tell anybody.'
It wasn't until she ran out of money and was asked to send another $20,000 that she finally caught on. At that point, she had already handed over $60,000. She added: 'I had to take my IRA out of my account and put it in the bank. I had to cancel my Prudential and put all that money in the bank, money I had saved and earned. And now it’s gone. I should have called my friends, my family. I should have called the bank.'
When she eventually did reach out to her bank, they told her to cease all communications. According to Coble, they still call her but she doesn't answer. Coble spoke out in the hopes that others would learn from her mistakes, saying: 'I’m proud to have the guts to share. I wanna share it so you don’t.'
In Hawaii alone, the FBI and the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have seen a 25 percent increase in the reported amount of money lost to fraud last year. The FTC received 8,665 fraud complaints last year resulting in $79.6 million lost by consumers, compared to $63.7 million lost in 2024 from 8,932 reports. Officials believe that the number is far greater due to people being embarrassed over being scammed. Across the country, the FBI received over one million fraud complaints with total losses sitting at $21 billion, according to a report released last month.
