fraud | ARLnow.com

Police warn of fake bank calls, bogus toll texts and other common scams

Published September 2, 2026 at 4:45PM

A wireless landline telephone (staff photo)

A caller says your bank account has been hacked and the money needs to be moved somewhere safe immediately. Arlington County police say it’s one of the scams they hear about most.

Caller ID can be spoofed to make the call appear to come from the bank itself, according to a department press release. Police said not to give account credentials or verification codes to an incoming caller — hang up and call back using the number on an account statement, a debit or credit card, or the company’s official website.

News

Lego thieves pocketed $36K reselling collectible minifigures on eBay, police say

By Dan Egitto

Published June 17, 2026 at 2:45PM | Updated June 19, 2026 at 9:13AM

Arlington police car (file photo)

Three suspects are accused of conspiring to steal minifigures from numerous Lego sets across the D.C. area, making a tidy profit reselling them online.

Collectible minifigures from fandoms such as Star Wars, Lord of the Rings and Zelda were secretly swiped in 29 incidents, supplying a high-volume eBay storefront that netted over $36,000 in 12 months, according to a criminal complaint.

News

Phishing attack put VHC Health patients’ medical records, personal information at risk

By Dan Egitto

Published June 11, 2026 at 3:45PM

The VHC outpatient pavilion (courtesy photo)

A data breach at a vendor for VHC Health may have jeopardized sensitive information including patients’ Social Security numbers, medical diagnoses and account numbers.

VHC Health mailed out notices of the phishing attack on June 5, but the attack on the vendor, Xsolis, Inc., took place on Jan. 22 — affecting an unspecified number of patients. The notices advise patients to “remain vigilant against fraud and identity theft.”

News

New fraud alerts notify Arlington property owners about document changes

By Scott McCaffrey

Published April 13, 2026 at 2:45PM

Clerk of Circuit Court Paul Ferguson (screenshot via Arlington County)

A new opt-in service from the circuit court clerk’s office aims to provide property owners with another tool to catch fraudulent activity.

The “Property Alert” initiative, offered at no charge, provides alerts when changes are made to property documentation held by the clerk’s office. Individuals can sign up for email notices based on criteria including name, property address or real property code.

Schools

New fraud hotline and conflict-of-interest policy coming to APS this spring

By Scott McCaffrey

Published March 18, 2026 at 9:15AM

2026 School Board members (via Arlington Public Schools)

The Arlington School Board is poised to adopt more comprehensive conflict-of-interest rules, while also authorizing a hotline for staff to report suspected financial impropriety.

Assuming the pair of new policies is adopted at the March 26 School Board meeting, the new hotline for waste, fraud and abuse will be in operation “in the coming weeks,” said Steven Marku, the school system’s director of policy and legislative affairs, at a March 12 meeting.

Schools

Arlington Public Schools considering new waste, fraud, and abuse hotline

By Scott McCaffrey

Published December 30, 2025 at 8:30AM

School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton (via APS)

The School Board’s policy subcommittee will open 2026 with consideration of new policies to combat waste, fraud and abuse while protecting those on staff who report it.

At its Wednesday, Jan. 7 meeting, subcommittee members will consider two separate but interconnected draft policy documents:

News

Woman wanted in Arlington GoFundMe fraud case is arrested, accused of stealing $26K

By Dan Egitto

Published June 23, 2025 at 3:45PM | Updated June 23, 2025 at 5:27PM

Arlington County police car (staff photo)

A woman has been arrested after allegedly defrauding a family out of $26,000 following the death of an Arlington resident.

Yesenia Amaya, 34, reportedly created a GoFundMe to support the immediate family of a juvenile who died in September 2023.

News

Former Rosslyn coffee shop owner sentenced to prison in credit card fraud scheme

By Jo DeVoe

Published April 6, 2023 at 9:55AM

Adiam Berhane, 50, the former co-owner of Caffè Aficionado in Rosslyn (by ARLnow)

A co-owner of the former Caffe Aficionado in Rosslyn and two accomplices have been sentenced in connection with a multi-year credit card fraud scheme.

On March 15, co-owner Adiam Berhane, 50, was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role in a conspiracy to commit bank fraud, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in a press release yesterday (Wednesday). Berhane faced a minimum of two and a maximum of 196 years in prison, per federal sentencing guidelines.

News

Police: Man shot himself at hotel, tried to make it look like a robbery

By ARLnow.com

Published February 28, 2023 at 10:10AM

File photo

A 69-year-old Connecticut man is in jail after police say he shot himself and falsely claimed he had been shot during a robbery attempt.

The shooting happened two weeks ago in the parking garage of the Hilton Garden Inn in the Courthouse neighborhood, a block from Arlington County police headquarters.

News

Former Rosslyn coffee shop owner convicted of credit card fraud

By ARLnow.com

Published December 14, 2022 at 11:10AM | Updated December 14, 2022 at 11:29AM

Adiam Berhane, left, at Caffe Aficionado in 2013 (staff photo)

The former owner of a coffee shop in Rosslyn has been convicted of an extensive credit card fraud scheme.

Adiam Berhane, 50, was the co-owner of Caffe Aficionado in Rosslyn, which was open from 2013 until 2016, when the cafe was shut down following a police raid. Federal prosecutors said Berhane used the cafe to process fraudulent payments after obtaining stolen credit card information from the internet — and last week a federal jury in Alexandria agreed.

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published July 20, 2022 at 7:30AM | Updated October 17, 2022 at 10:49AM

Rooftop sunset in Rosslyn (Flickr pool photo by Jeff Vincent)

SFH Prices Up 11 Percent — “Something may have to give, eventually, but, for now, average single-family-home sales prices in Arlington continue to spike, according to new data. The average sales price of the 108 existing single-family homes that went to closing across the county in June stood at just over $1.35 million, up 11 percent from the already red-hot market of June 2021.” [Sun Gazette]

CAIR Backs Arlington House Bill — “The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today expressed its support for legislation that would rename a memorial currently dedicated to Confederate General Robert E. Lee in Arlington, Va.” [Press Release]

News

Morning Notes

By ARLnow.com

Published May 25, 2022 at 7:30AM

"End Road Work" sign in Ballston (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Welcome to Our Summer Interns — Two interns have joined ARLnow for the summer. Mavis Chan of the University of Missouri will focus on local news reporting while Pia Kramer, graduate of Virginia Tech and Arlington’s Washington-Liberty High School, will focus on audience engagement.

Passengers Spend Hours on Planes at DCA — “Thais Austin wanted to get home to the District after a weekend visit with family in Jacksonville, Fla. Instead, she said, she and other passengers were stuck on the Reagan National Airport taxiway for three hours Sunday night, unable to exit their plane… Hundreds of passengers on at least a half-dozen other flights reported similar delays after thunderstorms downed trees, flooded roads and left thousands without power in the Washington region.” [Washington Post]