2 MORE SCAM STORIES FROM SPECIAL AGENT MARIE SMITH

In case you don't know or remember who Marie Smith is, she is a Special Agent for the North Carolina Bureau of Investigation - Financial Scams.  Check out episode 4 of my podcast.  It is my interview with her.

Below are are 2 stories she just sent me which she asked me to share with you all.

1 -  A scammer called the local police department and claimed to be the nephew of an elderly person and said he wanted the police to do a welfare check on the elderly person.  When the cops arrived, the elderly lady said she didn’t know who the “nephew” was.  The officer called the “nephew” back to let them know the lady was fine and the “nephew” began to ask other questions about the resident.  The officer felt uneasy about this so they went back to the elderly lady and found out she was the victim of numerous telephone scams.  Part of one scam involved the scammer saying the cops were coming to “get her,” so he called the police to try to intimidate her further.  Had she been too scared to answer the door, she may have never known the police officer’s true intentions – to check on her welfare.

 2 -  An elderly person was a victim of a Publisher’s Clearing House scam.  The victim’s family changed the phone numbers and kept the victim from sending more money.  So, the scammers ordered a pizza, had it sent to the victims house along with a note asking the delivery driver to call the ordering party (the scammer) upon arrival.  When the delivery driver called the scammer to say they had arrived, the scammer asked to talk to the elderly victim.  The delivery driver realized something was wrong and refused to let the scammer talk to the elderly victim.

These scammers are desperate.  They’ll do anything to make themselves seem legitimate and to continue contact with their victims.  I’ve heard of them sending flowers before, but the pizza thing is new!

Thank you Marie for these 2 stories.