During National Consumer Protection Week, our consumer team is trying to help you stay one step ahead of scammers by highlighting some of the top strategies they use to steal your personal information or hard-earned money.
This morning, I examined a new twist on an old technique gaining traction in Northeast Ohio. A phone call to each of these women pulled them into a web of lies.
For Annette Bailey, the person on the other end said her recently deceased husband had a $30,000 life insurance policy.
A chilling message greeted Chrysta Willis when she answered. She was told her grandson had been in an accident, and was arrested and being held behind bars on a $5,000 bond.
In both cases, a scammer was trying to shake down these ladies for money pretending to be someone they were not.
John Vega, with the Federal Trade Commission, said there’s been an uptick in imposter scams in our area.
"Here in Cleveland, there are 3,000 reports of imposter scams, and those numbers are really high for just one community,” he said. "They're trying to get better at what they do."
Now, there’s a new variation on the imposter scam; they’re using government agencies like the FTC.
"The idea that they're using our names, titles, names of our agency to defraud people is really concerning," Vega said,
Your first defense is not answering a call from a number you don't know.
But if you do. Vega tells me consumers need to take a moment and think, 'Does this sound outrageous?' Because likely it does if you just take a beat.
"If you take that idea of government's never gonna ask you to move money, we don't need you to send us crypto, we don't need you to send us gold. I think that should be a sign of this is a scam, and I should just hang up," Vega said.
That's exactly what Willis did. Sadly, Bailey did not. She caught the attention of a store manager when she bought $3,000 in gift cards.
"He came over, and he said, 'Are you being scammed?'" Bailey said.
Despite him flagging her purchase, the caller was so convincing that she sent the information. Her case among thousands of other imposter scams in our state, the losses staggering.
"One-hundred-sixty-million dollars is the number, but the reality that number could be double or triple because consumers unfortunately don't know they're being scammed or don't want, doesn't want anyone to know they were scammed," Vega said.
Bailey has a somewhat happy ending. After our original story aired, I followed up with her, and she was able to recoup $2,500.
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