Hey y'all,

My name is Cortney MacKay. I am posting here because a close family member of mine was scammed out of $10,000. This wasn’t your typical scam pretending to be a bank or random company—it was honestly really scary and way more convincing than you’d expect.

The scammers posed as the Summit County Police. They told her she had been subpoenaed for medical malpractice, claimed she had signed documents (which she hadn’t), missed a court date, and now had a warrant out for her arrest. They also threatened that her medical license—her main source of income and how she supports her entire family—would be revoked if she didn’t comply.

What made it even worse is that they had all of her personal information—her Social Security number, where she works, her occupation, bank details, everything. So, of course, it made the whole situation feel very real.

She’s honestly not someone to fall for things like this at all and is quite aware that these things happen often. Because of this, she actually tried to double-check everything while she was on the phone and even found what looked like a real warrant online—but it turns out the scammers had created it themselves. Everything looked so real, which is beyond scary.

They told her the only way to fix everything and protect her license was to send a portion of the money in her bank account as a “bond.” She asked all the right questions, trying to verify who they were and the legitimacy of their claims, and they had all the right answers – badge numbers, names of local officers, all of it. They even told her she couldn’t contact anyone else, claimed they were tracking her location, and told her if she went to the court office first, she would be arrested, which made everything feel even more urgent. She ended up staying on the phone with them for upwards of four hours, which kept her from being able to call the actual police. As soon as she sent the money, they hung up—and that’s when she realized what had happened. She had just lost $10,000.

She contacted the real police right after, and a detective told her this was already the third case like this in just two weeks. He then informed her that because the payment was made in cash, there’s basically no way to trace it or recover it.

That’s honestly the scariest part of all of this—these scams are getting so advanced and so personal that even someone cautious, aware, and actively trying to verify things can still fall victim. They knew exactly what to say, how to say it, and how to create pressure so she couldn’t step away or think clearly. This could genuinely happen to anyone, and that is utterly terrifying.

If you’re able to help her recover even a small part of this loss, it would mean so much—truly anything helps :) But if nothing else, I just hope to bring awareness to how planned out and intricate these scams can be. If you take anything from this, please let it be that no real law enforcement agency will ever demand money over the phone or pressure you to stay on a call like that. If something feels off, hang up and call the official number yourself.

Thanks for considering :)