New Bedford couple falls victim to scam, loses $97,000. Here’s tips on how to protect yourself
One Portuguese elderly immigrant told O Jornal his wife fell for a Facebook scam that cost them all their lifetime savings.
“We lost $97,000,” said the 79-year-old New Bedford resident almost in disbelief.
José, who asked for his last name not to be disclosed, said that thousands of dollars in bank checks and visa prepaid cards were sent over the course of several months per the suggestion of someone his 75-year-old wife believed to be a trusted confidant. The man claimed to be a widow doctor with two young daughters, who was planning to buy a house on Cape Cod.
More: Is that a scam? How to recognize and report fraudulent behavior
“He communicated with her in Portuguese,” José said. “The money was supposedly to help him put a down payment on a house because his funds were tied up. He let her to believe that she could move in with him and help take care of his daughters. She said that he would take care of her because we’re getting too old.”
But José said the “doctor” has never shown up in person, and the house he was supposedly buying has been sold to someone else.
“She now spends the days crying and doesn’t want to leave the house… she still believes he’s coming,” he said.
Scams are on the rise
With no children, had the couple confided in someone else about the situation, they might have avoided the scam or at least prevented it from escalating to the proportion it did, said the Immigrants’ Assistance Center CEO Helena da Silva Hughes.
She said the IAC has been helping José since he sought their support.
José said the police is now aware of the situation and he has also consulted a lawyer. He said he decided to share his story to perhaps help others from falling prey to similar scams.
Hughes said José’s experience highlights the growing threat of fraud that targets older adults.
“This population is so vulnerable and so many elders have technology barriers,” she said. “A lot of them are on Facebook to stay in touch with their kids and see family photos, but they don’t understand the dangers that go along with being on the Internet, on Facebook and they don’t know about computer viruses. They easily believe people, especially if they speak their own language.”
Hughes said another IAC client who lives in Fall River was recently scammed out of $10,000.
“A lady in our elderly group said she was playing solitaire on her phone, when messages started popping up. She initially ignored the messages, but she eventually contacted them,” Hughes said. “She was told they were watching was she was doing, and they knew she was going on porn sites. Unless she sent $10,000, she would get in trouble. She was not going on those sites, but she panicked and was embarrassed to tell her children.”
In that case, the lady was instructed to send visa prepaid cards.
These two scam experiences are far from being isolated cases.
According to the report “Protecting Older Consumers, 2022-2023, A Report of the Federal Trade Commission,” older adults reported losing more than $1.6 billion to fraud in 2022 in the United States.
IAC’s Elder Service Coordinator Lucia Oliveira said she is not only seeing more scams targeting seniors, but also different types.
“I am still in a kind of daze to the point of how smart they are getting to scam the elderly,” she said. “Something has to be done to bring awareness to all of our seniors. They manipulate them in a way that they get so scared, and they just give up their money.”
On Tuesday, Nov. 7, at 11 a.m. the IAC will be hosting an information session about scams in collaboration with the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.
Juraci Capataz, the Community Engagement Coordinator at the Office of the Attorney General in New Bedford, covering all of Southeastern Massachusetts, will be on hand to talk about identity theft and scams. She will touch upon mail, phone and online scams, especially those affecting seniors.
The session is open to the public. For more information, contact 508-996-8113.
‘Another day, another scam’
Capataz said the Attorney General’s Consumer Advocacy and Response Division (CARD) regularly receives complaints from individuals, including elder persons and immigrants, regarding different types of scams.
“It’s another day, another scam,” she said. “It does not stop. Scammers are so savvy; this is what they do for a living. They create trust that any of us can fall for it. The most vulnerable are the elderly or people who are isolated.”
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Capataz said the most common scams are those involving phone calls, mail, door to door soliciting, Facebook, emails and texts.
“If you did not initiate that contact, do not give them any information,” she said.
Red flags to help recognize a scam
Capataz said there are some red flags people should watch for to avoid a scam. They include:
the contacting party asks for your name or address;
a request is made for payment in gift cards;
texts or emails are from unrecognized senders;
a link to a website address that’s similar to a major brand;
misspellings in messages and also be aware of the time they are sent (for example in the middle of the night);
a sense of urgency in solving the matter.
“If it’s too good to be true, leave it alone,” Capataz said.
AGO: Imposter scams are the most common types of scams
According to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office, the Consumer Advocacy and Response Division (CARD) received approximately 1,490 complaints about “Robocalls, Phone Scams and Do Not Call List Violations” between Jan. 1, 2023 and Oct. 12, 2023.
“This is up from 774 complaints filed during the same period of 2022,” a spokesperson for the Attorney’s General Office told O Jornal. “However, we would caution against using this data to mark trends because most of these complaints were filed by a very small number of consumers.”
CARD also received more than 111 complaints about online scams since the beginning of the year.
Imposter scams are the most common types of scams the Attorney General’s Office typically receives. Scammers may impersonate a law enforcement agency, social security, the police, or even a loved one.
Romance scams are also frequently used to target immigrants and elders, particularly through online social media platforms.
“Victims of these scams are very rarely able to recover any of their lost funds,” said the AGO spokesperson. “If consumers realize they’ve made a payment to a scammer they should notify their financial institution immediately and consumers should never send funds to a stranger through untraceable methods.”
How to report a scam?
Generally, CARD handles scam complaints by referring consumers to the federal law enforcement agency with the most direct authority over the communication method used by the scammer.
“We encourage consumers to report these to the appropriate federal agency in the first instance,” said the AGO spokesperson.
If consumers are reporting internet scams, they are referred to the FBI’s internet crime complaint center. Phone scams are reported both to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission. Postal scams are reported to the Office of the Inspector General for the United States Post Office. Consumers reporting international scams can also be referred to ecommerce.gov.
“Never be embarrassed of talking about it because you could be helping other people,” urged Capataz, who speaks Portuguese fluently and acts as a bridge between the community and the AGO network. In addition to scams, she also educates community members on a variety of other topics, including homeowner/tenant rights and employer/employee rights.
“It’s important to know the Attorney General’s Office serves all residents of Massachusetts, no matter their immigration status,” she stressed. “No one should ever fear coming to file a complaint at this office.”
For more information, including tips and resources, on preventing scams and financial exploitation, visit https://www.mass.gov/info-details/preventing-the-financial-exploitation-of-elders.
A link to the AGO’s Savvy Senior Handbook may be found at https://www.mass.gov/files/documents/2019/04/10/Savvy%20Senior%20Guide_2019.pdf.
Consumers may file complaints with the AGO at https://www.mass.gov/how-to/file-a-consumer-complaint.
For more information, resources, and consumer-related services, consumers in Southeastern Massachusetts can visit the Attorney General's Office located at 700 Pleasant St., New Bedford.
For more information regarding the wide range of services provided by the AGO, please visit https://www.mass.gov/orgs/office-of-the-attorney-general.
Lurdes C. da Silva may be reached at ldasilva@ojornal.com. To read more stories about the Portuguese-speaking community, in English and Portuguese, please visit ojornal.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald News: Couple falls victim to scam, loses $97,000. Others urged to be cautious
