now threatening her. Okay. So, we just wanted to turn it over. I think he has dementia. She's kind of I called Elder yesterday. Mhm. So, just so you know, sounds good. Hello. I know you. Who are you? I know that name. How's that? Do you know if Rambuna says they call them rumbles downtown? I know your I know your name somehow. Yeah, I know. How can I help you? I'm going to let her explain cuz I'm not good at explaining. You want to sit I'm okay. The belt the belt's too thick usually to fit in the seats. See how you are? So, last Saturday, Caroline came in and um deposited a check for 4,800 from this. Somebody sent her these. They made them, send it. She does not even have an account there. I don't I don't even know these people. Okay, I'm going to let her explain cuz I don't explain. Good. Before we realized all this, we deposit it. They have not sent it back. I did try to tr call Travis Credit Union. I don't know if you guys would have more luck privacy policy. They can't talk to me. So, we are sure the check's bad. Whether this is a good account or not, I don't know if it'll come back. Um, this is the guy that Michael Fitzgerald and this was the number he was texting her on who sent the checks. Okay. Then somebody else reached out to her. Um, I don't remember where he from. his name was Charles and he was going to send money um and they had her give her online banking password and login and that we which we've taken care of all that but now they are sending threatening messages to her Michael is Michael is because they cuz she says she can't get the money yet which we have it on hold till the end of December hopefully that the other credit union will return it but with it being threatening and then I didn't know if you guys could do anything with those checks or Okay. Um he threatened also to he messaged me this morning and his I copied the whole number down. It was 930 area code and he left me a message back up a little bit. Um, I just told her, um, when we were messaging a few days back and I says, "Michael, why are you in panic mode?" Who's Michael to you? Uh, his name was Michael Fitzgerald. Okay. And you've never met him? No. Okay. I said, "Why are you in a panic mode about the check?" He didn't say anything. He said, "I have to have it." And he said, "I" He said, "You're going to take it." I said, "I'm not after anybody's money. I have a little social security. I don't want anybody's money." Mhm. So, this morning he messaged me and he said, and all I had is his phone number, like I said, 930. He says, "Um, good morning, Miss Carol. How are you today?" And when we used to message, he always said, "How are you today?" But he never called me, "Miss Carol." And he says, "Um, if I don't get that money," he says, "I'm going to broadcast to the FBI to this, to this, and this." And so I went up, I deleted him, and I thought, "No, I blocked him and spammed him." Okay, that's all. Okay, so what was the threat then? He would go to the FBI because, you know, when you're doing stupid things and you do a few pictures, you know, stupid things and messages and we message back and forth like idiots do. Um, he was going to broadcast it. Broadcast your bank account. Uh, pictures. Pictures and messages. And what kind of p What kind of pictures? What stupid do people do when you're alone? Do pictures of yourself and he's going to just climb out the newspapers, whatever. But he's turned evil. Okay. So, how long have you been communicating with this person? Few months. Have you ever met this person? No, that's what I said. And never we never spoke only or just have messages. And how did you meet him? On Facebook. Okay. Um he said that it showed a picture of him. In fact, I recently see that he won this 300,000. It's a charity organization. Okay. That's how we met. And then he says, "Let's go on to regular messaging." He says, "I want to just do that." So, do you think there's any possibility of this person is not real? That this is complete scam and whoever you're talking to is not really who they they're claiming to be? They the girls think so, too. I mean, we I've been talking how many times did I come in here yesterday? Maybe before or so? Yeah. Over there. And then I came in here and talked with her. Where do you live at? Okay. Um, and I live alone. Okay. So, I think she's worried about pictures getting up. Well, I again unfort unfortunately we get you know um I'll have a I'll do a report that we we spoke and stuff with this um seeing as especially since you know we're we're here right now we have this I will I will start a report but regarding you living in the city of Sunduski that's something that they're going to have to investigate since you're we're in Perkins Township. So, I can still do a report that we came up here and you and I, you know, we spoke about this. Um, can you let them know about I can let them know that you're going to come down there cuz they're going to want to get a statement from you. You have to over again. You'll have to go down to their police department. Uh, 222 MG Street. Yeah, I know where they're at. Okay. Will you be able to look at the check since it was deposited here? I I can look. Yeah, I can I will look at them and if they I can even take them and hold them as evidence and if they need they can get them from us. Okay. I didn't know if like you guys could call that that like that credit union cuz it is a legit credit union but I didn't have any luck getting over. So ultimately what more or less and I'm not going to give anybody the runaround. Um since you do live in the city of Sunduski to do live in they're going to be the one taking the initial they're going to have to take some type of report since you live there. Yeah, I get it. This is your financial institution. Yeah. But all this started where you live. It has your your residence on that address. Like I said, I can take that and put that into my evidence and if they want it, they can they can get it from us and I will do a little report on it say basically saying the same thing. We came out and we talked and I you know I I forwarded you down. Sending your report to Yeah. They we we use the same computer system so they can look up anything that I did and I can look up anything they did. So again, the big thing here is online safety. Um, you have to be very cognizant on what's going on and who you're communicating with because this this is the second day in a row now I've taken the same type of complaint, right? So this this goes on all the time and they these scammers are more often than not even here in the United States and there in big some big call center in a foreign country. Yeah. Cuz when some of the words that he writes, Mhm. he'll say instead of get, it gets gets. Mhm. They'll add an s. Yeah. Mhm. Yep. What the heck? He says, "I wonder where he's from." Mhm. But he never Yep. Nine nine out of 10 times they're from a completely different country and they're in a big big office building somewhere and their main goal is to scam you. Why is he in a panic not getting that money back? because he's trying to trying to scam you and explain to you that um put pressure on you to try to victimize you and make you feel bad for him because if he nine out of 10 times again in these the mind of a criminal, they're thinking, well, if I've got this person to send me photos of themsel, I could get them to send me money of myself because I'm going to hold that over there. That's called extortion. See, I'm not I'm 73, so I don't understand. Well, and then once you send the money, then he gives it free and clear and you're stuck paying it back. Yep. So that's why he's in a panic. He got money for nothing and now you're responsible for it cuz you're ultimately tied to it. That's why it's on hold. Mhm. So what do we do with on hold? That we'll have to see. Like I said, we have it on hold till December. We we did have one where it was that I reached out to the bank, told them everything that it never returned and the person ended up getting the money, but we kept it on hold for like 10 months waiting for this check to come back. I reached out. So there I mean we did everything we could at that point. It was on the other institution. So we're kind of at their mercy, but we'll leave it on hold and see what we can do until and hopefully they since I called them, they will return it. And they were expecting actually on Thursday. That's what he was waiting for. Yeah. That came in a little black. How do I explain it? It's not real paper. Like a bag or something? Yeah. But it was it was totally black. And I said, "What the heck is this?" So people can't see through it. Yeah. A lot of check companies do that. He probably went to a legitimate check company because you can order your own checks anywhere. Yeah, Walmart does them. You can do them online. Really? Yep. You get them made anywhere. Go to printing company. You key in your own information. They print them and send them to you. Yep. I only deal here as you girls know. So I I mean that's again um that there are people out there that like to victimize people. And a lot of it circles around the older people. Not even so much older people. Um just people that they feel like they're, you know, alone or they don't have anybody. They don't have, you know, they're not married. They don't have significant others. And they try to smooth talk them and to that point where they think they got you hook line and sink or the old ad additage. Yeah. Absolutely. 100%. Um, did did he ever send you photos of himself? I asked him. He says, "I don't have any. I just wanted to take one." Mhm. He said, "I don't have a way." That again, he did ask him. Again, red flag there. So, I'm not up to date. I'm just oldfashioned. Mhm. That's why. So again, this if there's red flags there where somebody's saying, you know, did did you ever ask or meet him in person? He says he lives too far away. That's what he said. Did he tell you where he lived? He says, "I'll be coming. I'll be coming soon." No, I don't have an address. I asked him a few times if he has an address. Mhm. He's probably overseas. And I I I would be willing to bet that the same person or the person you're talk to is not the same person every time. And if they've done it once, they're probably going to try to do it again. So what we need to do is figure out what we can do to try to help you out from this. Um have you ever had any contact with any of the groups serving our seniors or anything like that? Um they came over once to see to check on me because I like I said I live alone but I have awesome neighbors. Okay. Because that street is short so we know each other and we watch over each other. Okay. So we have some resources with saving our seniors or serving our seniors rather and um we have one of our police officers on the team. the person that's in charge of it, a retired police officer and they help out um you know senior citizens that fall victim to these type of crimes. So what do we do with that? So what what I can what I can do is let me see here. So, right here, checks.com. They ordered it from that website. So, I didn't even look at that. Yep. [Applause] Have you ever had a uh a fraud like this occur or is this the first time? I I sent messages to a fraud place before, but I don't remember when. How long ago was that? Do you have a general idea? It might be sometime mid last year. Okay. What's a good telephone number for you? 419. Okay. And did you take the bus here? Did you ever drive here or my little red truck? Okay. I love that little truck. Okay. Um I'm mountain born. I'm in Vermont. Okay. Where in Vermont? U South Bonad area. It's near Brown Mountain. You know, hey girl, come on in. Oh, you wait here. Okay, sure. Sure. I'm just here to supervise. Yeah, this is my boss. Well, it's nice meeting you. Nice to meet you. You think so? I'm a feisty little lady. Oh, I'm scared. No, actually I was in martial arts. Oh, really? I injured my instructor years ago. Wow. I attempted jiu-jitsu for 6 months and it was that fun. Can get rough. Yeah, I didn't like it. But I'm also classified security and concealed carry. Hey, when you're mountain, you're jack of all trades, that's for sure. Well, I I know how to protect except for myself. What's going on here? Wow. Well, and you said you said nobody else lives with you. Then you you do live alone. I live alone. Okay. Neighbors protect. Okay. Do you uh do you have regular communication with your family? Um my daughter lives Okay. And my son lives out on Okay. So somewhat close then. Yeah. But I live alone and you do stupid things when you're alone. Okay. So when now again you know not just keeping it business here. So what were what were the context of these images that were shared? Yeah. Let me take pictures of yourself. Okay. So nine nine out of 10en times again like I like like I said um they use these images and they're trying to you know it'sion like I said and they're trying to get these hold that against you and say hey we have these we're going to do this if you don't give us this money. So I mean like I said you have to be very cognizant of what you're doing online. Okay. He said it is when we first started it was like a charity charity organization. Mhm. Have you ever heard of a charity organization that's asking for photos of anybody? No, cuz I don't know anything about them. Okay. I'm very new on this. That's why. Okay. All right. Um, and the last time that you were scammed, was it the same type of thing? No. No. Okay. Um, who did you report that with? Did you report to any law enforcement entity? No. Okay. Um, but they were scamming my credit cards and so those are the ones that I called fraud on. Okay. Now, I can't use any of my credit cards. Now, do you have on your your cellular device, is it a is it a cell phone? Is it a tablet? Is it a computer? How are you communicating on your phone? Okay. Um, do you have any like third-party applications that you communicate with, text now, anything like that? Or is it just regular? I don't know. Okay. It's just regular text messages. You're talking to these people? Text messaging? Cuz I don't know. I'm not going to It's 8 years old. Consumers say you're old. Okay. So, um, have you ever thought about changing your number? No, because I forget a lot. Okay. And I probably forget the phone number. Okay. Um I don't know how to do that. Okay. Who do you uh who do you have your phone service through? Consumer Cellular. Okay. Now, when you need to say service your phone, how do you like is there anywhere local you take that or is how how do you pay the bill? How does that work? Up consumer cellular automatic uh um withdrawal with them. Okay. So, it's like an auto pay. Okay. So, do they have like a help tech support line or anything you can get to that? I haven't yet. Okay. Do you consumer? Yeah. Consumer cellular? I'm not good with phones. I don't I usually just um message my kids or me, you know, do message with my friends and I don't play games on there. Do your kids know that people reached out to you? I won't tell my kids anything. Okay. Cuz then they'll put me in the same asylum because of my age. Does that ever happen before they try to put you anywhere or do they part try to put you in nursing home or anything? I know my kids. I know my kids. They protect me. Um Okay. Target. Okay. So, the re the reason I asked this is because it might be a very good solution to try to change your telephone number to stop this kind of stuff because that's what we're going to try to help you out and figure that out. It looks like you can go to Target to their electronic department. You can talk to them. That's where Consumer Cellular is located like in a physical location. No, I was over Target. They're not there anymore. I was over Target in the back. They're in the back way back by the TVs. Yeah, I went down there uh last summer and they said, "Oh, they moved out of here." Okay. Um so what what my my initial thought is here, we'll see what we can try to do to help you out here. Obviously, I you know, want to have some type of re resolution to this regarding what's going on here. That issue needs to be reported to the city of Sunduski Police Department. But when a situation like happens like this, your phone ultimately goes like these scammers put it out online on what they refer to as the dark web and they say, "Hey, it's easy for you to get money out of this or easy for you to get photos out of this person. Have have your luck at this. Now, your information is out there and they're it's going to keep happening. They'll just switch numbers." So, and that's what what I'm They will switch phone numbers and call you from different numbers. Yep. Well, when when certain numbers are coming up, what I've been doing is I block them. That's I've been doing that like steady. Okay. And I'm also getting predator. Yep. Things. So, I've been blocking them. Absolutely. And that that's that is another tall tale sign of a of a scam situation going on. Is that what that is? Absolutely. Absolutely. They have your information. So, if you're getting multiple calls, multiple text messages, multiple, you know, people reaching out to you, that's that's exactly what's going on. Well, that's like the ones that I get are from um Synchrony or City Bank. I'm multi. So, all I'm doing is block block. That's what I've been doing. Well, and then they're just they're they have these random number generators and it's a computer program way beyond my knowledge of how they even work. Um, and they just hit dial and it's going to ring until it gets until it gets you. It change number each time. And it's a pretty sophisticated system that they got running over there in all these countries. Real crooked. Absolutely. Absolutely. So, I I mean, you know, it's it's all about the the online safety. Ultimately, we want to make sure you're safe as well. Um Um, give me one minute. I'm going to step out. I want to I'm going to grab some pictures of this so I I can have them for my report and then I won't need to take that. You can just take that back to Sunduski because they'll want to look at it as well. Um give me one minute. I'm going to run out to my cruiser real quick and I'll be right back. Okay. No problem. Sure. And I just No. So, um I called Target cellular cell whatever your cellular network consuming cellular. Yes. Yeah. They're still in Target, but Target, they just activate the phone and you can buy it there. So, if you wanted to change your phone number, you'd have to contact the cellular network directly. Such as life. Such is life. Yep. It'd be too complicated with me because of my friends and relatives all back home. So, it's like I don't know. I don't know what to do. Yeah. In a situation like that, you would still be able to keep your phone. Um, you could just send out a text to people saying, "Hey, this is so and so. I change your phone number." Yeah. You would still have all your what she's saying. Your phone would stay the same. It's just your number. I just have to talk to everybody about my phone number. Like, hey, you know, this is me. I changed my number. Delete the old one. This is my new number. Yeah. And you could you can Do you text? Yeah, you text message. Yeah. Yeah. So you can you can just send a text to whoever. You just like copy and paste it to different people. Is that easy to do? I would. Yeah. I mean it it would just be timeconuming but kids first. Yeah. Of course. Yeah. Yeah. And and um and you say you're worried about not remembering your phone number. A lot of people will they'll put like a piece of tape on the back of their phone with with your current phone number on the back of it. Or you can put Oh, that's an idea. Yeah. Or you can keep a piece of paper in your purse or wherever with your I lose things. Your current phone number. You know what I did and I use this all the time. I created a contact that says me, myself, and I for my own number. Yeah. Because I text myself if I got to remember something. Uhhuh. That's smart. I've done that. Yeah. That way I have it with me all the time and like, "Hey, pick this up from your prescriptions, whatever it is." You know, see, so you could save it that way. I'm not good with my phone whatsoever. Just I'm only 73. I mean, 37. You know, they know these girls here, I have fun with them. Yeah, they're like family. That's what I tell them. Huh. So, what I No, I forget a lot. So, I was trying to do a little trying to do a little bit of research as well. Mhm. Um, it looks like there was a fraud that you did file with dusty. A while back, okay. But I don't remember when and I don't remember how or what it was about. Okay. I forget a lot. It's not fun. Okay. Is there uh an underlying underlying medical issue? What that what you forget about things or No, my age. Just age. My kids are noticing that. I forget easy. Like if I'm doing something like I'll set my purse down somewhere. Uhhuh. And then I'm going around the house trying to find it. Okay. Have you ever have you ever spoke with the doctor about it about any of these things? My daughter-in-law wants me try to find somebody to talk to me about. It might be a um deficiency of a vitamin or something. I don't know. But I just turned 73. Okay. And this is so this but this is an issue that somebody has noticed before then. Um they've been a little bit you have a white piece of paper so not getting all your notes on the back of it. Sorry. No, you're good. A little bit here and there. Have you ever talked to um so you've ne you've never went to the local doctor or firelands or anything and talked with anybody about anything? No. No. It's noticing it's increasing that I forget. Okay. How long has this been going on then? Uh, since I've been out last fall, I think. Okay. I've been under that duress. Was that two different cooks? You remember those that they were there? There was two different ones trying to get me for, you know, get me to send money and stuff like this. And I vaguely remember that. I think Michael helped you with that one. Yeah, he did. His name was John F. Cample. When is you say you did block the person that was messaging you asking for the money though? This morning? Yes. Okay. And since that communication, has there been anything further? Um before I blocked it or since then? Well, what what I did yesterday is I deleted him. Okay. Because he kept harassing me. I deleted him. So this morning, um, in fact, I took his name out. Okay. And I did that with the girls. They helped me take his name out. Right. Okay. So this morning, it was like 7ish. I forget. Um, I got this phone number 930, but I didn't copy the whole thing. and says, "Hi, Miss Carol. How are you today?" And when we used to message back and forth, he always said, "Um, how are you today?" every single time. He'll never call me by my name. Mhm. And I thought, "How did he get through?" So, I went up. Oh. And he sent me this threatening. Would you mind? Do you still have that or did you delete it? I deleted everything but the one or the other officer said that they can go through my phone. Okay. My consumer cell phone and pick up all the messages. Isn't that what he said? They could pick up all my answers. They they would have to subpoena it or whatever. I don't know that that I mean if again I'm just so that's something that Sunduski would have to go through to get to get that. What I did is I went and on my my phone is very old. I went in and blocked and scammed. That's what he Okay. And he has a message since Okay. He's very crafty. So again, like I like I said before, I I would I'd be willing to bet whoever's communicating with you is not the same person each time. So, um, so I did take I did take pictures of these because I'm going to submit them as evidence. You take both of them. Well, I'm going to I'm going to direct you down to the Sunduski Police Department as well. So, they they're going to want to look at these as well. I got, like I said, I got I got photos for my report what I need. Um, and you ju again just confirming you have no idea who Travis Credit Union is. Correct. I've never heard of them. Okay. until this stuff came in and it came in that black pocket. I What the is this? I don't even know how they did this. Well, I could I could call up this check company right now and give them a bunch of madeup numbers and say I want uh my name is Joe from Cooko and they would put that on there. I never even knew this this company, you know, I never even heard of that. Okay. All right. Uh again, I'm just I'm just confirming for my for my records that you have no idea who this uh Travis credit union. No, cuz I have my own credit union right here. This is where I get my checks. Is this your only uh financial institution that you use? Yeah, my girls. Okay. And how often do you uh you come in here? Sometimes I just come in here just to visit with them. Okay. But yesterday four day four times. Just came in to visit four times. I had some things that I had clear off or just sometimes, you know, bring them a snack. Okay. That's what I do is I like to treat my girls. Mhm. Right. You've had some of my things that I brought here, I'd say. So, all right. We're almost wrapped up here. Let me uh talk to the boss real quick. See if we need anything else from you and uh we'll get out of your hair here in a second. Okay. Thank you. No problem. Thank you. Hello. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. Hi. Hi, Dad. Hi. How are you? Hi, Carolyn. How are you? Do you remember me? Yes, I do, but I don't remember your name. That's okay. I you I could tell you recognized me as soon as I walked in the door. Absolutely. Mhm. What's going on? I'm Julie with Adult Protective Services and I've come to see you a couple times. Yes, you have. So, what's going on today? I'm still building with life like I did before. Nothing's changed except for once in a while. Oh, once in a while I forget. Well, let's do this. I don't want you using this. Can you I don't want it. Will you leave that with Jen? I don't know. That's why I was going like this. Okay. I don't want it. You want to make sure that no one else touches that right now. Check. Did you guys get that information? Want to take it? So, I got it. But, so the majority of the incident that's happening is taking place in Suski. She just she just feels, you know, secure here. So, I will I can take that and I will put in evidence if Sadusky doesn't end up in it. Well, we will work. I took pictures of it, but I will take I will end up taking it and I'll put it in property and if they want it, they can come get it. That way you don't get confused either and accidentally try to use it somewhere else and trouble. And I use her my speaker because I like when I'm talking to different people I and she knows that I tend to start a conversation, but there's something else in my mind that I want to tell them and I So it kind of like gets all jabric, huh? She knows how I am. I know how I am. I know how you are because I've been to your house a couple times and talked to you. So, I like coming to talk to you. You always have the great You have the best stories. We just want to keep you safe. Okay, Caroline. She going to come give Jen a hug. I can tell. I always give her a hug. We all just want to help you. Okay. A lot of people care about you. You know why? There you go. Thank you. I was going to come I was going to come see you anyway today. So, come on. Well, you're going to go you're take your friend for doctor's appointment. Yeah. Yep. You got to you got to go do your friend's appointment. Okay. Huh? I'll see you for sure by Monday. Okay. All right. Remember, if you if you need something, you know how to reach out. Okay. All right. All right. Go home. Well, you you said you had to go meet a friend, right? I got to be out of her house at 12:15. Okay. Well, it's 11:30 right now. So, you only have 45 minutes before you have to pick her up. So, get yourself some lunch and go see her. Okay. Okay. I don't mind. It was night. It was nice to meet you. Okay. She'll do some followup with you. Okay. Bye, Carolyn. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.