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It was just moments after she stood on a street in Manhattan and dropped $400,000 worth of gold through the rolled-down window of a Honda Accord, driven by someone she didn’t know, that Angela Shaw decided something was terribly wrong.
Her boyfriend, musician Jim Bannach of Ocean City, said he realized something wasn’t right after he put almost $100,000 in cash into a bitcoin ATM, handed over more than $214,000 worth of gold, got his girlfriend involved to the tune of $450,000 of her own savings, and then was asked to take a second mortgage on his home.
Bannach and Shaw said they were the victims of a complex technology scam that caused them to panic and eventually liquidate nearly $765,000 worth of assets into untraceable forms of currency and give it to criminals.
The FBI calls this the “Phantom Hacker Scam” and warned of it in a Jan. 29 public service announcement. In 2023, the FBI reported it received 51,750 complaints of tech support and government impersonation scams and reported losses totaling more than $1.31 billion. A large percentage of victims never report because of embarrassment or other factors.
For Bannach and Shaw, the story started when a mysterious man, “Jonathan Price,” called Bannach’s cellphone one day, purporting to represent his cable and internet provider, according to the couple’s retelling of the events.
They told their story in an interview with the Herald prior to a recent gig Bannach had at the Oar House Pub in Sea Isle City, as the musician sipped a Grey Goose martini and Shaw slowly downed a bloody Mary.
Bannach has performed across Cape May County and the Jersey Shore for decades. He has done private parties for President-elect Donald J. Trump, makes regular appearances at the Windrift in Avalon, entertains the crowds on the docks of the Lazy Bass at the Grassy Sound and pops up basically everywhere in between with his signature electric keyboard.
In the summer, he plays more than six gigs a week, but what nobody at those gigs this summer — between Aug. 15 and Sept. 19 – realized was his off time was consumed working with a man who was tricking him into giving away every dollar he had to his name.
Shaw had retired after working as a dietitian with Cooper University Health Care.
Though a bit apprehensive that press coverage might make them look stupid or foolish, they stressed that it was important to do the interview to try to raise awareness. Had they just read a similar story once before, they never would have fallen for a scam that cost them everything, they both said.
How It Began
There was an emergency, “Jonathan” explained over the phone, and Bannach would soon be facing criminal charges. He needed to act fast and tell nobody if he wanted to see his way out of the situation. But, Bannach was told, he could rest assured, the man was there to help.
Jonathan told Bannach, 68, that he worked for Xfinity and that there was criminal activity originating from his internet router, but that the company did not believe Bannach was the one behind it, rather that his identity had likely been stolen and whoever had done that was committing crimes that the government intended to accuse Bannach of – money laundering and child pornography among them.
“He said, ‘These crimes, a lot of them actually have been coming through the internet through Nigeria.’ He says, ‘Have you been to Nigeria?’ I said, ‘No, I’ve never been to Nigeria,’” he recalled.
Then Jonathan swore Bannach to secrecy so he could begin the process to “clear his name.” Otherwise, he would soon be arrested on child pornography and other completely false but devastating charges, he was told.
“He said, ‘The first thing we have to do is before we go any further is we have to get you to sign a nondisclosure agreement stating that you’re going to work with us, we’re going to work with you. We’re going to clear you of these crimes, but you can’t bring anybody else into it. It has to be done secretly,’” he remembered.
Bannach signed the document.
From there, Jonathan told him he had conferred with the U.S. Department of Treasury and that Bannach needed to empty his bank accounts, because he would soon be assigned a new Social Security number. He had Bannach grant him access to his computer and he would monitor Bannach’s activity, both checking his account balances and actually taking over control of the computer, moving around his own cursor.
Having been instructed by Jonathan to empty his bank accounts, Bannach did, getting bags full of $100 bills. He then began to deposit the cash back into a bitcoin ATM at a gas station on Stone Harbor Boulevard.
He was told he had been set up with a bitcoin account in his name that would keep the money safe until they were able to catch the criminals and assign him a new Social Security number, but that account was never in Bannach’s name.
On his first trip to the ATM, Bannach deposited $17,800. A day later, Aug. 16, he dumped another $6,300. Five days after that, Aug. 21, he deposited another $6,950 that he would never see again. Then, he went back to put another $17,800 in on Aug. 27, $25,250 on Aug. 28, $24,600 on Aug. 31.
“When I was shoveling the cash into the bitcoin machine, some of the hundreds didn’t work,” Bannach said.
But Jonathan had an idea: “’Take those hundreds, put them aside,’ he says. ‘The department’s going to reimburse you for those. … Take those hundreds, go out to dinner,’” Bannach recalled.
And so he and Shaw did, ordering extravagantly, not realizing the bill they were going to be footing would soon be the least of their worries.
After emptying his bank accounts and converting the money to untraceable bitcoin that Bannach had no control of, Jonathan turned his attention to other savings Bannach held.
“I said, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be taking [over $200,000 cash] and sitting here shoving it in this machine.’ I said, ‘You can’t do it.’ He says, ‘All right, let me call the department again.’ He gets back to me. He says, ‘We’re going to buy gold,’” Bannach said.
After a few trips to shady stores that Jonathan directed him to that sold gold coins locally and in Philadelphia, Bannach gave Jonathan an idea that would help move the money much more quickly – a trip to the bullion exchanges in midtown Manhattan.
There, Bannach purchased $214,571.88 worth of gold bars via a wire transfer. He walked out onto the streets of New York carrying the gold bars, went to a hotel he was told the government would reimburse him for, photographed them for Jonathan and then met a courier the scammer had sent, dumping his life savings in gold through the back window of the waiting car, which was supposedly taking it for verification and safekeeping to a vault in Washington at the Treasury Department.
On to the Girlfriend’s Money
Over the course of the three weeks it took for Bannach to hand over more than $313,000 to the scammer, the two spoke many times on the phone.
He described Jonathan as a man with what sounded like an Indian accent who was very patient, persistent and friendly with him. He learned about Bannach’s schedule and that of Shaw, eventually finding out that she had retired with savings after her dietitian career.
And although he was not quite done with Bannach yet, Jonathan shifted his focus to the 65-year-old Shaw.
She put about $50,000 into the bitcoin ATM during two trips Sept. 16 and 18. Then Jonathan went for the gold. He instructed Shaw to cash out her retirement accounts, even telling her what to say if she faced resistance, although she said that, disturbingly, she did not face very much.
“Jonathan told me a financial adviser might ask you what you want to do with your money you’re withdrawing. ‘They’re going to ask you questions and you just say you want to buy a boat and you want to surrender all your money,’ he instructed me,’” Shaw remembered. “I went through the switchboard to where some of my retirement savings were and a woman said, ‘Oh, what are you going to do with the money?’ I said, ‘I’m going to buy a boat.’”
That was it; a few days later the transfer cleared and she had access to the cash. On a second trip to New York Sept. 19, Shaw visited the bullion exchanges, wired a little more than $400,000, got it in gold, then followed the same procedure – back to the hotel to photograph it, then dropped it through the window of the waiting courier’s car who would take it to the vault in Washington.
The scammer left her with a little over $5,000. He had learned Shaw cared for her mother and told her that money should last for a couple months of her mother’s care while the rest was temporarily tied up with the government.
What Next?
After Jonathan took all of Bannach’s liquid assets, he tried to get him to transfer ownership of his house, but at that point the musician began to question the legitimacy of the request.
On Sept. 19, Bannach and Shaw figured out something wasn’t right and reported what happened to local law enforcement, they said. So far, they haven’t gotten anywhere with that investigation.
They offered license plate numbers of the courier vehicles, tried to pick Shaw’s courier out of a photo lineup (unsuccessfully, the person they chose was found not to be the courier) and were eventually referred to the FBI, where they said they have been much happier with the response.
So far, Bannach and Shaw haven’t recovered anything, and although they are holding out some hope, Bannach said he is also feeling a sense of relief that the nightmare he lived with and the constant stress it inflicted during the month he spent dealing with Jonathan is over.
He wrote about those emotions in a song, “Live for Tomorrow and Today,” which he released in September.
“I’m glad it’s over now/ We’re gonna get through somehow/ I’m glad it’s over now/ Let’s go on with our lives,” Bannach sings.
And while Shaw said she did feel some anger at first toward Bannach for unwittingly roping her in, that has mostly subsided now, and they are committed to moving forward together.
The Community Steps Up
In the wake of the situation, those who care for Bannach and Shaw and others who have been affected over the years by his music and performances have stepped up to raise money for them in a GoFundMe campaign.
“Imagine spending your entire life bringing joy to others through music, only to have your golden years stolen by faceless criminals. This is the heartbreaking reality for me and Angela,” Bannach wrote on the GoFundMe site, which as of Nov. 20 had raised $19,800.
Bill Campbell, who has listened to Bannach for years on the Seven Mile Island and has hired him for birthday parties and weddings, said in an interview, “Jim is such a down-to-earth guy. First of all, he’s a fantastic family man to his children.
“If you go listen to Jimmy, the joy that he brings into the place itself, the atmosphere with the people, it’s hard to explain. The guy is such an entertainer. He’s a great showman. And you listen to his music and it comes from the heart.”
Tim Horan, one of his fans who became his friend, said, “Jim is an absolutely wonderful performer, but an even better human being. The best of the best.”
And Shaw? Her sister, Barb Harrison, said at first she went through the stages of grief, but eventually came to a place of wanting to help raise awareness that could help others and move forward.
“I think initially the emotion consumed her,” Harrison said. “I had to help her to put things in perspective. It was a loss they went through. I’m glad that she’s coming out on the other side, and I think she’s trying to be helpful.
“I think they want to use this as a means of education for people so it doesn’t happen to them.”
Contact the reporter, Shay Roddy, at sroddy@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 142.
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