From Panic to Purpose: One Woman’s Journey After a Devastating Scam

The Call That Started It All

In the fall of 2024, Dolores, a retired Montgomery County educator, was at the hardware store buying bird seed when she received a call from a private number on her cell phone. She ignored it, but the phone rang again, and again. When it rang a fourth time, she became concerned and decided to answer.

The man on the other end of the line claimed to be with the Montgomery County Police Department and told her that there was a warrant out for her arrest due to her failure to respond to four subpoenas that had been sent to her home. Since she hadn’t received any subpoenas, she questioned the legitimacy of his claim. However, he was insistent. He said that someone must have been pretending to be her, and that she needed to prove she had enough money to cover the bond, which would be refunded at a later date. He spoke with authority and urgency, saying that a police car was ready to arrest her if she couldn’t make this right immediately. This was her last chance to do so.

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How the Scam Unfolded

Dolores became confused and full of terror, just as the caller wanted her to be. Over the course of her five-hour nightmare, he scammed her out of $10,000, which she deposited over the course of multiple visits to a bitcoin machine.

“He would play good, cop, bad cop,” Dolores said. “When I would get upset, he’d say, ‘it’s ok, we’re going to get you through this and sort it all out,’ but when I would begin to question what was happening, he would threaten that I was going to get arrested if I didn’t do what he said.”

Dolores wanted to hang up and tell someone what was happening, but he insisted that she could not tell anyone because the warrants were related to an ongoing murder investigation. He added that hanging up on an officer would just get her into more trouble.

Under the Ether

If you think this could never happen to you, think again. Imagine going about your day, buying bird seed, for instance, while a scammer, with carefully crafted tactics, catches you off guard. Once thrown off guard, your normally rational brain is thrown into panic. The scammer takes advantage of your panic to bombard and bully you through a series of well-thought-out games, reading exactly when to strong arm or comfort you to make you feel like they’re on your side. Scammers refer to this as putting a victim “under the ether.”

The Emotional Toll

Dolores’s husband eventually spotted what she was doing with their money and was able to step in and help her to realize that this was a scam and put a stop to the continued transactions. With his support, they contacted the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office and reported the crime. Through the Sheriff's Office, they were put into contact with the AARP Fraud Watch Network, a nationwide service for victims to report fraud and connect with resources and support.

“It left me feeling like a big dark nothingness. I was so embarrassed and I isolated myself from friends in an effort to avoid telling them. I didn’t smile for a long time,” Dolores confided.