‘This can happen to anyone’: US woman scammed out of over RM93,000 urges others to be aware

Even three weeks later, it’s hard for Judith Gage to reckon with the sense of violation and vulnerability she feels after falling for an elaborate scam that started with a message appearing on her frozen computer screen and ended many hours later with her giving US$20,000 (RM93,650) cash to a man at the bottom of her driveway.

“I can’t even describe it. It was almost like being on a path to self-destruction that I couldn’t stop and maybe knowing at some level how incredibly crazy it all was and doing it anyway,” Gage said, her voice breaking.

“Seeing that much cash in an envelope and walking out and following through with his stupid instructions and letting this guy tell me what to do who I didn’t even know but I guess I trusted on some level…It was horrible.”

Gage had gone online that morning to search for a word puzzle game her son recommended when a pop-up announced her computer had been hacked. She needed to call the Apple Support number provided, it said.

The man who picked up her call to the supplied number gradually explained that her money had been used on child pornography websites, and the situation was serious. He purportedly patched her through to her bank so she could check. The transfer started with the typical Wells Fargo recorded greeting, and from there she spoke to a number of supposed representatives.

The Federal Trade Commission was involved, she was told, and the scammer even sent her a digital letter with the agency’s insignia. From there, she was convinced to drive to her local bank branch, withdraw the cash – supposedly necessary to help with the investigation – and eventually give it to an “agent” who was sent to her house to pick up the money.

By the time she woke up the next morning, Gage said she “realised she had been had”.

The scammer called back, likely to ask for more money, she thinks, but by then she’d talked to Apple, Wells Fargo, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office and a neighbour.

It’s hard to make sense of now.

“Really, it’s so out of character,” Gage said. “If anything, I’m sceptical of everything, yet I went down this rabbit hole.”

She’d been so scared during the more than six-hour affair and had even framed it in her journal that night as if the scammer had been helping her. “I was so complicit in this ridiculous thing. It’s impossible even though everyone says you can’t blame yourself. Who am I supposed to blame?”

“Scammers go for an emotional hijacking,” said Amy Nofziger, director of victim support for the AARP Fraud Watch Network, which runs a free helpline for scam victims or anyone with questions. “That’s how they kind of overtake your cognitive brain, and they make you act with your emotions.”

Nofziger has talked to hundreds of thousands of victims in her 22-year career. She said the broader societal reaction to scam victims is misguided.

“We don’t treat them with kindness and empathy. We look at them with a shrug of the shoulder saying, ‘I thought you were smart. How could that happen to you?’ We really need to change that perception of victims of financial crimes in our society,” she said.

Yes, older or otherwise vulnerable people can be particularly susceptible to scams.

Gage, a Sonoma County resident, is 78 years old and lives alone. She is still suffering from the trauma and long rebuilding and recovery process after her home burned in the 2017 Tubbs Fire, not to mention losing her husband and mother since.

But, scams have proven effective across the board, be it impostor schemes like Gage’s, email phishing ploys, investment scams, fraud charities or romance cons.

Despite consumer warnings and news stories and policy efforts to reign in scamming, in 2023, nationwide fraud losses topped US$14bil (RM65.55bil) for the first time, according to FTC data, a 14% increase over 2022. And, younger generations have been as affected as their older counterparts, if not more so.

“Let’s be very clear that this can happen to anyone of any age,” Nofziger said. “Even if you are a Ph.D. from Harvard, you are vulnerable to one of these scams, and then sometimes even more so, because you trust yourself.”

Recently, a financial columnist who writes for New York Magazine detailed how she was duped into handing over US$50,000 (RM234,125) in a shoe box through a car window to a supposed CIA agent.

Famed reality television host and producer Andy Cohen revealed in January that he gave scammers access to his account by following a link from a fake bank fraud alert after he’d lost his debit card.

Nofziger noted that scammers follow the headlines, so if there’s new student loan regulations or a natural disaster that spurs calls for aid, related scams will pop up.

Scams evolve, too, with technology, for instance, in gaining remote access to devices or using AI.

At the same time, an impostor Publishers Clearing House sweepstakes, the first scam Nofziger ever dealt with, still pops up. Scams in which someone physically meets the victim to pick up money are less common. In these cases, scammers often hire an unsuspecting courier to finish the job.

Regardless of the approach, “the most important thing is for people to always listen to what the ask is,” Nofziger said. “Are they asking you for money in a prepaid gift card? Are they asking you to go to an ATM machine? Are they asking you for your Medicare number or social security number or remote access into your device? If it’s any of one of those five things, it doesn’t matter what they’re saying. It’s 100% a scam.”

Importantly, she added, it’s essential to report the crime as with any other because perpetrators can and have been caught or the information can be helpful for ongoing investigations or tracking trends.

Like many in her position, Gage likely won’t get her money back. She’s retired and relies on social security but also has some income from investments.

“It’s a huge amount of money,” she said. “It didn’t push me into the poorhouse, but it also isn’t something that I can replace.”

She considers herself lucky in that way, but the emotional trauma is lasting. “I’ve just been struggling so much. I cry all the time… This has been a real blow,” she said.

On guidance from Adult Protective Services, Gage filed a report with the FTC about her experience. The next day, she got a call. The number showed up as the FTC, but it was yet another scam. This time, she didn’t fall for it, but her takeaway?

“Everything is compromised, and they’re all out to screw you, basically, I’m sorry. And that realisation at my age? …It’s not the world that I want to live in,” she said.

To Nofziger, it’s more than Gage’s problem to process.

“We need to be looking at this as a societal issue,” she said. “Yes, she was the one that loses the money, but we are all losing this money out of our economies, and so we all need to step in and do our part, like better warnings at gift card carousels and banks, talking to people, sharing your experience.”

That’s at least why Gage decided to speak out about hers:

“If it makes one person a little bit more aware of what’s out there, that might just not do what I did, then it’s worth it. What have I to lose? I’ve already lost everything I can lose and I don’t just mean money.” – The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, Calif.)/Tribune News Service