VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Victims of what federal prosecutors call the "parking lot scam" say they're grateful to News 3 and a local attorney who saw our report and is now taking legal action to help them possibly recover their money.
The scheme has targeted hundreds of people in Hampton Roads, with criminals tricking victims into handing over their phones in parking lots, then using banking apps to take out loans in the victims' names.
"Very stressful, especially with the payments," Tignor said. "I was like, I'm just at that breaking point. This is too much for me."
Watch: True Crime 757 podcast takes on the case of the parking lot scam
WTKR met with Tignor last summer near Lynnhaven Mall, where he said the scam occurred. The financial stress had become overwhelming for the student at times.
Travis Minson was the first victim WTKR interviewed with a similar story. He also was charged 18% interest on a $7,000 loan he didn't take out after handing over his phone in a parking lot.
"I didn't get any of the loan money. I didn't personally use any of that, it didn’t help me at all so for me to have to keep paying the loan off, it's just a hindrance," Minson said.
Attorney Gary Byler saw the WTKR reports about the victims and took action. He said he could not stand by and see people being bullied and not do anything.
He now represents about 45 clients with similar stories of getting scammed and then being forced to pay back money that they say they didn’t take out.
Watch previous coverage: Another suspect arrested in parking lot scam
He said they have asked for 100% of the money with interested to be returned to the victims. He said they asked for letters to be sent to credit agencies to fix the credit of those impacted.He also said they asked for $2,500 dollars for each person and $2,500 for fees for the lawyer costs.
He has filed lawsuits for two clients in Virginia Beach and Suffolk in separate cases where police made arrests.
"The filing of the lawsuits has had some positive impact. Navy Federal Credit Union has taken the very wise step to hire outside legal counsel," Byler said.
We reached out to the local attorneys now representing Navy Federal. They said: "We do not comment on pending litigation. Nonetheless, I would like to refer you to Navy Federal's prior advice on the issue, which is to remind members to avoid sharing their phone with any unknown individuals."
Previously, Navy Federal issued statements saying they're deeply concerned about these schemes and actively cooperating with law enforcement. They said these cases illustrate how important it is to treat an authenticated banking app with the same level of caution as a wallet. The credit union also said they've taken several steps to protect their members from fraud.
Watch previous coverage: Lawyer flooded with calls after taking on scam on Navy Federal customers
Byler said his legal team has issued subpoenas to get more information.
"In addition, we issued a subpoena on one of these cases and for the first time have the actual names of individual employees of Navy Federal that investigated the claims so while we're hoping for settlement, but if necessary, we will bring those folks into court and see what they got to say," Byler said.
The victims say they're grateful to News 3 and Byler for taking action to help them.
"Honestly, I feel grateful about it, because he listened to us, and he's doing everything, because I looked into an attorney myself and I know I couldn't really afford one," Tignor said.
As part of what both victims says was a painful learning experience, they acknowledge they should never have handed their phones to strangers but don't think they're being treated fairly by being forced to pay back loans they reported as fraud.
"It's just annoying for them. Just basically brush it off and say yeah this is your fault when they preach that they are here to help their customers," Minson said.
Court dates for two of the victims are scheduled for February and March. Byler said they're hoping to settle the matter without having to file over 40 more individual lawsuits.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
