A couple weeks ago I learned that a dear friend of mine was scammed by a fake PayPal email. Now before you say “she should have know” or “she shouldn’t have fallen for the scam”. Remember more people than we probably realize have fallen for a scam. The majority of people don’t report being scammed because they are embarrassed and feel stupid that they even fell for the scam.

I like to believe there are good people in the world but I am forced to realize that most people can not be trusted.

Rose on the other hand is a kind hearted soul that would give you the shirt off her back. She always tries to see the good in people and animals alike.

She worked hard her whole life and now lives on Social Security Disability. She doesn’t have a lot but always gives what she can and finds time to volunteer for the animal shelter and the library. She is also a Best Friends advocate trying to help enact the NO KILL LAW for all animals.

The worst part is by one action someone has taken something not only monetarily away from someone but they have turned someone cynical that never wanted to be that way.

Even though I know every time she thinks about what happened she has anxiety, I am asking her to share her story so maybe someone that reads this will be spared being scammed themselves.

From Rose:

I went to bank to pay my line of credit and when I came out of the bank I had a text saying that there was a charge from PayPal for 899.00 for bit coin. When I got home I called the number in the email and told them I did not purchase anything. The women on the line told me immediately I had been hacked and needed me to report this to Federal Trade Commission and she would be able to connect me to them directly and provided me with her badge number which seemed very legitimate at the time. The gentleman she transferred me to also provided me with a badge number. The phone number was a Philadelphia number so I believed it was all for real. I was told to stay on the phone and tell no one that they believed someone at the bank was an inside person. He said they were going to put Twenty thousand in my account and I was to go to bank and take it out in cash and find a bitcoin depot to put the money in so they could track the money and catch the scammer. He also had me add two apps to my phone Bitcoin and Appdesk. The Twenty thousand I thought they were putting into my account was actually a withdrawal on my line of credit. The person I spoke to referred to himself as Daniel and had no foreign accent. He stayed on the phone while I went to the Bitcoin depot to finish the transaction and made me feel like they were able to see who was scamming me (little did I realize it was them all along). All but three hundred went through at the Bitcoin depot and Daniel said you can keep it you earned it. At this point I felt something was off and spoke to a friend that night that said it did sound like a scam. I called my mortgage guy in the morning and he advised me to go to the bank. The bank confirmed that I now owed and additional twenty thousand on my line of credit. Daniel did attempt to call me the next day but I blocked the number. I have since reported this to the local police department and they are actively investigating my case. I felt so deceived and humiliated and I just wanted to crawl up and die.

If you can find it in your heart, any amount helps to maybe piece her back together so she can continue to enjoy retirement without this financial burden she now has placed upon her shoulders.