Criminal Steals 84-Year-Old Widow's Peace of Mind

“He’s a very suave con artist,” Joan says now. “He's very persistent. He is determined. I was thinking, I’m 84 years old, you dumb bunny. And you shouldn’t be harassing me.”

He even set up a conference call with Joan and seven men who purportedly, with his help, received refunds for time-share investments. Looking back, she has no way of knowing if their representations were real.

It was years ago that Joan bought her time-share at a sales event in Las Vegas that drew her by advertising “a free lunch, free this and free that,” she says.

The deal never lived up to its promise. She took a couple of trips but was often told the vacation spots she wanted already had been booked — supposedly — by VIP owners. Ultimately, she relinquished ownership.

Treasury Department warning

On its website, the Treasury Department warns that scams invoking its name are common. There are numerous telephone, mail and email scams where individuals claim to be Treasury Department employees and offer to grant money, or they threaten arrests or fines unless your personal information is provided. The department advises:

• If you have received a suspicious message from someone who claims to be a Treasury employee but does not purport to be from the IRS, report it to the Treasury inspector general by emailing OIGCounsel@oig.treas.gov or calling 800-359-3898.
  
  
• If you have received a suspicious message from someone claiming to be from the IRS, report it by emailing phishing@irs.gov or calling 800-366-4484.

Eva Velasquez is president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

Eva Velasquez

How the fraudster obtained Joan’s personally identifiable information may never be known. But data breaches, exposures and leaks this year are on track to shatter a record, says Eva Velasquez, president and CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center, a national nonprofit in San Diego.

When hackers steal information, it’s a data breach. That differs from a data leak, which involves open-source information that, on a site such as LinkedIn, is not considered personally identifiable information but when aggregated in a single file left unsecured or stolen poses the risk of an identity crime. Exposure involves information accessible by an unauthorized person without evidence the data was viewed, copied or removed.

The total for the first nine months of this year was 1,291 data compromises affecting more than 281 million victims, the center says. The record for data compromises was set in 2017: 1,529 incidents and 1.8 billion victims, a figure dwarfed by the staggering 2.5 billion victims in 2016.

'Despicable' violation

​Velasquez, who earlier spent 21 years investigating financial crimes for the San Diego County district attorney, called Joan’s victimization “despicable.” Velasquez says the scam’s dead giveaway was the request to send money to a private residence — since no government agency would do that. The phone calls, too, are a telltale sign. If the Treasury Department wants to reach a person it uses “very official correspondence,” she says.

Velasquez recommended that Joan:

• Tell the Federal Trade Commission, which has a website, IdentityTheft.gov, for victims. Likewise the Identity Theft Resource Center offers help.
  
  
• Tell the senior facility where she lives. Its files often contain much sensitive information, so the facility should be alerted.
  
  
• Tell a relative or another trusted person.
  
  
• Tell the three major credit bureaus to freeze her credit. Check the reports to ensure new accounts haven’t been opened in her name.
  
  
• Tell her health insurer to ensure no one is using her data for medical care.
  
  
• Do not answer calls if she doesn’t know who’s calling. Use call blocking to limit illicit calls.
  
  
• Tell the police if, in the future, she loses money or her data is abused.

If needed, seek counseling

Importantly, any victim suffering from emotional distress should ask for help from a social worker, therapist or peer support group, Velasquez says. AARP’s Fraud Watch Network and the Volunteers of America offer online peer support groups.

​If you suspect you’re being targeted by scammers, take notes and prepare a script for the scammer’s next — and hopefully last — call. Here’s one Velasquez suggested for Joan:

“Thank you for your call, [scammer’s name]. I’ve already reported you to law enforcement agencies, and I’m keeping track of every number you call me from and the date and time. Goodbye.”

Joan says she ignores the scammer’s calls now. Her refusal to speak in recent days led him to start texting her, saying that he had important information and that she should respond immediately. She’s ignored the texts, too, and plans to block his numbers.​ ​

Katherine Skiba covers scams and fraud for AARP. Previously she was a reporter with the Chicago Tribune, U.S. News & World Report, and the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. She was a recipient of Harvard University's Nieman Fellowship and is the author of the book, Sister in the Band of Brothers: Embedded with the 101st Airborne in Iraq.