Marco Raquan Honesty, a 28-year-old from Washington, has pleaded guilty to participating in a series of fraud schemes that collectively caused over $600,000 in losses. The schemes, which spanned from 2021 to 2022, included COVID relief fraud, smishing (SMS phishing), identity theft, and bank account takeovers.
Honesty was involved in orchestrating smishing attacks, where he sent fraudulent text messages designed to trick victims into revealing sensitive banking information. These messages directed recipients to phishing websites that impersonated legitimate bank sites, allowing Honesty and his associates to steal login credentials and transfer money from victims’ accounts.
Court documents also reveal that Honesty ran a Telegram channel advertising stolen data, including credit card numbers and bank credentials. In addition, he utilized the stolen information to facilitate transfers, including using Zelle and intrabank transfers, to siphon funds for himself and his conspirators.
Honesty’s fraudulent activities extended to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), where he and his co-conspirators submitted fake loan applications using false tax returns. This scam led to over $500,000 in losses to the Small Business Administration (SBA). Honesty personally received kickbacks, sometimes as much as $10,000 per loan.
The fraudster also participated in a separate scheme involving fraudulent Western Union money orders, which resulted in intended losses exceeding $79,000. During a search of his home in September 2023, investigators uncovered 24 mobile phones, three laptops, and equipment used for creating fake credit cards and other fraudulent documents.
In total, the schemes caused an estimated $622,000 in actual losses, with authorities suspecting the intended losses may have been much higher, exceeding $850,000. Honesty faces up to 20 years in prison for wire fraud, along with a mandatory two-year sentence for aggravated identity theft. He is scheduled to be sentenced on May 23.
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