Posted on 05/19/2021 11:23:55 AM PDT by L.A.Justice
SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A Point Loma grandmother is sharing her story after she was scammed out of her life savings during a two-day nightmare.
Barbara Read, 71, got the call last Wednesday morning. The cellphone caller ID read "Federal Reserve." A man identifying himself as a federal reserve officer told the disabled retiree her identity had been stolen and used in a crime spree.
“They knew quite a bit about me,” said Read. ”Someone had been laundering money and counterfeiting money to Colombia, and drug trafficking.”
Read was transferred to a supposed sheriff's deputy, who confirmed she was facing charges, under surveillance, and should stay on the phone with them.
“They just scared me so much with … people were watching me. My phone was tapped. They were going to arrest me and throw me in jail,” said Read.
But the man claiming to be with the Federal Reserve said he wanted to help her, and wanted to protect her assets from the identity thief until the investigation wrapped up.
"Scared me so much that I thought, ‘Gosh, I guess they're really trying to protect me,’” said Read.
In the next two days, the retired nurse and widow went back and forth six times between her banks and Bitcoin ATMs, withdrawing $38,300 — every penny of life savings — and depositing it into a Bitcoin account she believed was a Federal Reserve holding account.
She also charged $2,000 in gift cards, reading the codes to the men on the phone. When they abruptly hung up, she knew she'd been scammed.
“I just feel like I'm at rock bottom,” said a tearful Read.
Read, who lives on a fixed income, is now facing an uncertain future.
“I just felt terrible. So defeated. I have no savings. Nothing … I like helping people, like my granddaughter and my church. That’s what hurts the most: not being to help others out,” said Read.
Read is sharing her story to help others avoid the pain she's feeling.
“I just don’t feel like I would get caught in something like that, and I definitely did,” said Read.
Read did file a police report, but her family told ABC 10News the Bitcoin deposits, which used something called blockchain technology, are untraceable.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help read with expenses.
So maddening.
[ Read was transferred to a supposed sheriff’s deputy, who confirmed she was facing charges, under surveillance, and should stay on the phone with them. ]
Anyone calls me from a “trusted institution” I ALWAYS ask for call back number etc... and tell them I am going to call them back after looking up their phone number from my side.
99.99% the call hangs up on me. because they are scammers...
NEVER TRUST A “TRANSFER” EITHER!
Ask them for the number to call and the name of the place/person “in case the transfer drops” then look it up on your side.
I got one, played along for 5-7mins, and then told him off brutally, until I finally hung-up. Nothing since.
These types of calls mostly originate out of India.
No time, man! We gots to investigate the January 6 insurrection!!
[ Read is sharing her story to help others avoid the pain she’s feeling.
“I just don’t feel like I would get caught in something like that, and I definitely did,” said Read.
Read did file a police report, but her family told ABC 10News the Bitcoin deposits, which used something called blockchain technology, are untraceable. ]
This will be used for fuel to ban/heavily regulate bitcoin and we will end up with “FED-COIN”
Same here. A lot of older people grew up in a time when it was common courtesy to always pick up the phone. I’m not as old as the lady in the story, but I have no such scruples. I hate talking on the phone anyway, and 98% of the calls are sales and scam calls.
[ A poor old lady here lost $20k the same way...............
These bastards should be publicly executed on TV ................ ]
Thieving from old people on fixed incomes shoudl carry the death penalty period!
It INFURIATES me that the government is doing nothing to stop this sort of thing. There should be public service ads on TV and on the radio. And seniors should be getting occasional warning mailers - maybe with their social security statements.
How do we know that she herself is not running a scam?
I was almost tricked some years ago. This was in reference to the IRS. When the caller kept asking me for more and more date, I didn’t feel good about it, so I just hung up. I figure the real IRS already has that info.
Sometimes I’ll get a call with no ID. The phone itself will label this number as “Scam Likely”. I take the hint and just don’t answer.
Since I will soon be 65, I’m getting a ton of unsolicited calls wanting to advise me on MediCare.
I can usually hear other Cold Callers chatting in the background, usually in Tagalog dialect.
Before I even say ‘hello’, I hang up when I hear that.
If I need to decide on Medicare A or B, I’ll talk to the health department myself.
[ Laws don’t prevent crime. They punish after the fact................. ]
Badly written laws also punish the victims by denying them their due justice while filling the pockets of lawyers too.
Are you seriously proposing that people past a certain age would have to get permission from some relative before having access to their own money? Speaking for myself, screw that noise. I’d trust a Nigerian scammer before most of my own relatives, and my in-laws are little better.
Better to educate people that every phone call from a stranger is a scam, no matter what they threaten or promise. Every single one, no exceptions.
That’s honestly one of the problems. They intentionally hide this information from their family. If they would just share this info with someone, they would immediately find out it is a scam.
But with many older people, it is easier to just follow along than raise suspicions. I have a friend who has fallen for several and I suspect there is some Dementia involved.
I don’t even answer the phone if I don’t know the number.
I seem to recall that bank employees and Western Union outlets are trained to ask customers withdrawing or sending lots of money if they are acting as a result of a phone call or some such. They are trained to especially notice if the customer is elderly. Her bank likely fell down on the job.
[ These types of calls mostly originate out of India. ]
Actually you’d be surprised how many are from Pakistan.
Mudslimes being call scammers to rob the infidel over the phone...
All of that is Halal
You don't have to answer your phone, and you don't have to answer your door.
The IRS will never contact you via telephone. It is always via mail.
What was interesting is the amount of information they can have and how legitimate they sound. These scammers are very sophisticated and I've known some very savvy people who have had their identities stolen.
Seniors will ignore all of that or it goes right out the window when the call comes.
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