And a screen came up on my computer and said, “You have been hacked.
I said, “Well there’s definitely somebody in the computer.”
[00:00:32] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
Our computers are our portals to the world now.
In today’s story, we’ll meet Tom and Dianne Clemens.
They’re lovely people, retired professors.
And this threat eventually costs both of them their entire life savings.
Most of it stolen in boxes of cash.
And she would be cautioning us, she’s like, “Careful, careful, Tom.
Okay, careful, kids, careful.
You know what happens, someone always ends up getting hurt.”
They live in Normal, Illinois, for heck’s sake though they are originally from North Dakota.
That’s where they met.
[00:02:24] Tom Clemens: Well, we didn’t really have dates.
We made a joke of it later that we didn’t have dates.
We were kind of became friends.
When we both going out with different people.
We just became friends for about 2 years.
And our first real date was a trip to the Rocky Mountains together.
[00:02:44] Bob: Wow.
[00:02:45] Tom Clemens: It was 1974.
[00:02:47] Bob: Do you remember where in the Rocky Mountains you were?
[00:02:49] Tom Clemens: Well let’s see, we took off.
[00:03:18] Bob: That is such a great story.
So that’s what we did.
So that was kind of a long day, but that’s kind of how it was.
[00:03:35] Dianne Clemens: It was.
[00:04:20] Bob: Erika, no surprise, also ended up in a caring profession.
She takes care of some of the weakest, most vulnerable people you could imagine.
[00:04:30] Erika Clemens: So I’m a NICU occupational therapist.
So work in a, I work in a neo-natal ICU.
So for best outcomes.
And it’s very rewarding.
[00:05:47] Bob: Perfect.
So I got out of organizations, and I didn’t join things like that.
And that was wonderful.
Then, two years after I retired, I developed breast cancer.
And that slowed me down appreciably.
[00:06:23] Bob: Dianne’s treatment was aggressive but she somehow managed to see the bright side.
And I like NCIS, and movies on TV, and Netflix, and books.
It sounded like a freight train.
I had never heard that noise before.
[00:09:05] Dianne Clemens: That’s right, exactly.
It was, it was unsettling.
[00:09:25] Bob: And when she does, a man answers right away.
Gave me a badge number.
And said that he would help me get this noise under control.
And so he had to speak loudly.
And I got the noise under control.
It probably took about a minute.
And so he transferred me to somebody named Neil.
[00:10:26] Bob: Neil gets on the phone and says Dianne is in trouble.
Her personal information has been stolen.
I’m not a computer person.
How can I be hacked when I just have had this computer for four days?”
So Neil asks Dianne more questions.
Where do you bank?
I’ll get PNC security on the phone right away.
And man named Marcus joins the call, and he soon has more bad news.
And I said, “No, I didn’t.”
[00:12:27] Bob: The nearly $10,000 charge is on a pornography site.
Soon after Tom comes home.
I said, “That sounds like the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard.”
[00:13:24] Bob: So Dianne sets out to follow Marcus’s instructions.
She tells Tom to stay at home and watch their computer.
So I called her, and she was at the bank, and I told her this.
I said, “Well there’s definitely somebody in the computer.”
But let’s just check that that the rest of your accounts are okay.
He asked if we had online banking.
And so therefore, I said, “We’ve never got into online banking.”
An investment account has been hacked, but maybe even worse.
It was an inside job.
Someone at the financial institution is trying to steal from her.
So she has to go get all her money out of the bank.
But she must be incredibly secretive about it.
Neil said this too in regards to Microsoft.
[00:17:31] Bob: The investigators keep stressing how important absolute secrecy is.
They move money out in smaller chunks to stay under the radar.
Still, the bankers might ask questions, so Dianne has to be creative with Marcus’s help.
And so I would say, “Well, of course I think that I should do this.
I know that this is legitimate.
And I know these people.
[00:19:54] Tom Clemens: At the end of about the fourth week another problem arose.
Her breast cancer had come back uh up, showed up on a screening.
So she was shook.
So then I was shook.
[00:20:27] Bob: The news is devastating.
The next time Dianne goes, Marcus warns her the bank might start asking even more questions.
So she is prepared.
[00:21:04] Dianne Clemens: I went to get an international transfer.
I’m going to go to this other country and get some experimental treatment.
[00:21:33] Bob: You dont have cancer.
So at this point, they decide to switch to cash transfers.
That will be simpler than moving money to an account overseas.
And that’s when things get very, very CSI.
[00:22:28] Bob: How did that feel?
[00:22:31] Dianne Clemens: It was surreal.
Tom went with me because I said, of course, you know, I can’t do this.
It was like we’re not really doing this.
How does the movie end?
Well that’s next week on The Perfect Scam.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch data pipe Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’s The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
For many, computers have been the connection to the outside world during the pandemic.
When Dianne and Tom are hacked, they find that connection suddenly cut off.
Worse yet, the retired professors bank accounts and entire life savings are now at risk.
