One things for sure, I’ve seen my mama not hesitate to help someone when they’ve reached out for help. Hoping I can get her some help in return.

My mom, Wanda Parker, fell victim to a money scam on December 4, 2025.

She received a phone call around 10:30am from someone who claimed to be from the Darlington County sheriffs department. The phone call was to inform her that she had not appeared in court after signing a summons notice from earlier this year. She quickly informed the “officer” that she had never received a summons for court duty and that’s when he told her that she needed to go pay a fee $5000 to avoid being arrested on the spot. This put Wanda into a honest panic and all logical thinking went out the window. Truly believing this was an officer, she wanted to follow his instructions. She spent over three hours on the phone with this man who was claiming to be in Darlington law-enforcement, and ultimately withdrew $2000 from her accounts- which was pretty much all her means- as he instructed and deposited it into a bitcoin ATM at a local gas station (Tommys Quick Mart on Irby) per his instructions. The entire time she was on the phone with this criminal, he kept telling her that she was not allowed to discuss their phone conversation with anyone. She was instructed not to hang up the phone and if she did either of those things she would be arrested immediately- keeping her in a panicked state. After depositing $2000, the criminal told her after review of her transactions, she owed an additional $1800 to avoid going to Darlington jail. That is when she asked his permission to call me because she had no money left to withdraw.

When I spoke to Wanda on the phone, she was in obvious distress and you could hear how scared she was with the thought of being arrested and going to jail and embarrassingly upset she was having to ask her daughter for money. After she explained the events leading up to that phone call, I assured her her that she was being scammed. I told her to stay where she was at the Tommy‘s Quik Mart and keep the person on the phone. I then hung up with her immediately called Florence Police Dept. and requested an officer meet me at the gas station to help us navigate how to get her out of this situation with the scammer on the phone. An officer quickly showed up and once the scammer knew he had been busted, he simply hung up.

A police report was filed, and we have followed all of the appropriate steps to report a fraud claim to the bitcoin company. I have helped Wanda submit these forms and these reports in hopes that she will get some part of a refund and after final review of her case, it was determined that the bitcoin company would refund her $298.

My sister, Whittney, and I have agreed that as her daughters, we will help her anyway financially —as much as we possibly can. This is just another way I thought we may be able to help her. I’m truly not expecting this to get very far and I know there are others who have much much bigger problems than this. Just a gal trying to help her mama- she has a lot of friends and loved ones and she has nothing to lose.