They love to cook and entertain, so they put their energy and money into renovating their dream kitchen.
Construction starts and is going smoothly until the payment for cabinets is due.
Suzi and Gary discover that they are the victims of a BEC (business email compromise) scam.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:35] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
[00:01:41] Bob: That is a crazy coincidence.
[00:01:42] Suzi Beerman: Wait, are you the guy that I saw in the hallway earlier?
[00:01:46] Gary Beerman: Yes.
[00:01:47] Bob: I hope he’s an invited guest is all I have to say.
[00:01:58] Bob: Gary stole Suzi’s heart many years ago by his mastery in the kitchen.
Oh gosh, you know, what do we have in the fridge?
Do I need to like after work go out and shop, you know?
So it’s like a division of duties back then.
It wasn’t the skill that wasn’t there, it was just like give me inspiration.
[00:03:37] Bob: I’ll keep you.
They did start out great.
Let’s go take a look.
[00:04:33] Gary Beerman: No, that’s unusual.
[00:04:43] Bob: I mean that never happens, so that’s amazing.
[00:04:45] Gary Beerman: That never happens, Bob.
[00:04:57] Suzi Beerman: It was carefully orchestrated.
[00:04:59] Gary Beerman: Yes.
[00:05:01] Bob: The new home in Arizona is perfect except for one thing.
[00:05:40] Suzi Beerman: Yeah.
[00:05:41] Gary Beerman: Basically that, that’s just about it.
[00:05:42] Suzi Beerman: Well yeah, yeah.
[00:06:02] Gary Beerman: I had about 800, we had to leave some of them.
[00:06:08] Gary Beerman: I think probably both my mom and dad.
My dad uh, he was a contractor engineer architect, and but he uh loved to cook.
And so they allowed me to be in the kitchen with them.
[00:06:35] Gary Beerman: Oh it’s, it’s my way of giving something to somebody.
And, and that is just an important part of life, I think.
And I was happy ‘cause I didn’t have to cook.
Um…
[00:07:48] Bob: You got to eat.
We’re, let’s make it ourselves people.
[00:08:05] Bob: Okay, so what were the plans for the kitchen?
[00:08:34] Suzi Beerman: There’s really not smoke when you cook, Gary Beerman.
[00:08:37] Gary Beerman: Yeah, right.
The kitchen was pretty much closed off from the great room and so you couldn’t hear people.
If you were in the kitchen you, you couldn’t hear your guests who were out here.
It just, the whole thing was poorly designed.
The cabinets were horrible.
They …
[00:09:18] Suzi Beerman: Tell us what you really feel.
[00:09:20] Gary Beerman: Yeah.
[00:09:21] Suzi Beerman: How did you really feel about that kitchen?
And that was exciting.
It’s like okay, let’s, let’s do the kitchen.
[00:09:37] Bob: So soon after moving in, Gary and Suzi start interviewing design companies.
It takes almost 6 months, but finally crews come in and get to work on remaking the place.
It’s no small commitment.
You know it’s a mess, but you do it knowing that there’s an end goal.
[00:10:50] Suzi Beerman: I did.
I still when I pull that one out, I’m like, hmm, not you again.
[00:11:06] Gary Beerman: Yeah, right.
[00:11:25] Bob: Oh, nice.
There’s big news.
The cabinets come in.
That’s great, but it also means a big payment has come due for $61,000.
And I said, “Great.
Um, we’re not in town.”
And they said, “Well we can do a wire transfer.”
And I said, well, yeah, we’ve done those before.
Let’s go ahead and do wire transfer.
[00:13:03] Bob: Where were you guys on, on vacation by the way?
[00:13:05] Suzi Beerman: Mexico.
[00:13:06] Bob: You were in Mexico.
So you want to get them the money as soon as possible so they can move forward, right?
[00:13:19] Gary Beerman: Exactly.
[00:13:20] Suzi Beerman: Of course.
They sent me the invoice.
And then she forwarded me, through her email account but on her cellphone, the account information.
So I had already received the invoice and now I was receiving the account information.
[00:14:08] The wiring instructions basically, right?
[00:14:11] Suzi Beerman: Yes.
[00:14:11] Gary Beerman: Yes.
[00:14:26] Suzi Beerman: “Hey, are these the account numbers that you received?”
And I looked at the email and I verbally said, “These are the account numbers.”
And they said, “Okay, cool.”
And they said, you know, “The money will be ready in a couple of days.”
And I was able to track that transaction.
[00:14:45] Bob: The funds are supposed to be sent almost immediately.
But a curious note comes a couple of days later.
And I was like, wow, I’ve never heard of that.
I didn’t know you needed that.
It’s, it’s okay.
[00:15:19] Bob: So the funds are delivered.
[00:15:32] Suzi Beerman: And 10 days went by.
The designer reached out and said, “Hey, when are we going to get that money?”
I was like, well, are you kidding me?
“You got it already.
I even sent you the letter confirming that it was for you.
What do you mean you didn’t get it?”
And our designer didn’t know where it was, and our bank didn’t know where it was.
And so we, we had no idea where to turn.
[00:16:06] Bob: Where is the $61,000?
The bank doesn’t have it.
The designer doesn’t have it.
It’s long gone from their bank account.
It’s just missing.
There must be some mistake.
[00:16:21] Gary Beerman: Oh right, absolutely.
It had, it had to have been… did, did it get stolen?
Did it get missent?
And at that point we were still feeling like, wait…
I mean we were so naive.
At that point we were feeling like, well we’re going to get help.
Somebody’s going to help us.
There’s something wrong with the email that included the wiring instructions.
Instead of a .net ending, it ended in .pm.
[00:17:28] Bob: And that’s when it becomes clear.
The wiring instructions didn’t come from the designer.
It’s been stolen.
[00:17:47] Gary Beerman: I felt like I was kicked in the gut.
It was a gut kick.
I mean I almost threw up.
I, I literally almost threw up.
And I, Bob I, I almost threw up.
The designer doesn’t express much sympathy for Gary and Suzi’s situation.
I’m like, wait a minute.
Let’s work out a payment plan.
We realize you just lost $61,000.
But no, they went against us at that point and it was shocking.
It was like we were already reeling.
Well duh, yeah, I didn’t pay you.
I tried to pay you.
They didn’t care at all.
[00:19:41] Bob: They also have you over a barrel.
I’m thinking…
[00:19:43] Suzi Beerman: Oh yeah, we didn’t have a kitchen.
[00:19:45] Gary Beerman: That’s a great, great description, Bob.
[00:19:53] Suzi Beerman: Yeah, you couldn’t.
I mean you couldn’t.
There was no sink, there was no refrigerator, there was no stove, no oven.
You know none of the, no dishwasher, that’s kind of important.
It was, I mean everything was, I was like how can we live this way?
[00:20:19] Bob: How can they live this way?
Isn’t there any way to recover the stolen funds?
No, says the bank.
Isn’t there insurance?
[00:20:28] Suzi Beerman: Well guess what, typical home insurance doesn’t cover it.
[00:20:44] Bob: Hmm.
[00:20:55] Suzi Beerman: Violated, well violated, yeah.
[00:21:31] Gary Beerman: That, that’s a lot of money to us.
[00:21:44] Suzi Beerman: Together.
Nobody dragged us in a back alley, you know, and stole our money.
[00:22:03] Bob: After weeks of frustration and dead ends, finally someone seems to care.
[00:22:09] Suzi Beerman: So here we are, we’ve had $60,000 stolen from us.
We have no kitchen.
We go to the FBI and we hear absolutely nothing back from them.
So we reported it to our Oro Valley Police Department.
Thank God for them.
They took us seriously.
They recognized the loss.
They recognized the violation.
[00:22:52] Bob: It’s Detective Deren Jackson who investigates.
What really happened to the money and can anyone be held responsible?
With so many of these stories, victims rarely get answers.
But in this case, Detective Jackson isn’t ready to give up.
[00:23:10] Det.
Deren Jackson: Uh, yeah in January, late January of 2024, I received uh this case.
It was assigned to me.
The process typically a patrol officer will take the initial report.
That report then is assigned to a detective if follow-up is needed.
[00:24:07] Bob: So what did happen here?
This is sometimes called a business email compromise, and it’s a common scam in real estate transactions.
We’ve covered that here on The Perfect Scam.
Real estate agents and their email accounts have long been targeted by hackers.
With efforts by the real estate industry to thwart those attacks, it seems criminals are branching out.
[00:24:58] Det.
Send it here, right?
[00:25:36] Det.
Deren Jackson: Exactly.
[00:26:26] Bob: I mean gosh, it’s almost like the perfect crime, you now?
[00:26:29] Det.
[00:27:08] Det.
So she provided that account information to us.
[00:27:50] Bob: An individual’s name… in Texas.
The person who received Suzi and Gary’s money, at least initially isn’t out of the country.
[00:28:03] Det.
Deren Jackson: I’ve seen it before where it is in the United States.
[00:28:28] Bob: And it doesn’t take long before…
[00:28:30] Det.
That detective was able to locate and interview the subject who actually received the money sent uh the victims.
[00:29:05] Bob: So she called you and said, they found the person, right?
[00:29:08] Det.
Deren Jackson: That’s correct.
[00:29:17] Det.
[00:29:37] Bob: If there’s a lead, is there any money that can be recovered?
[00:29:41] Det.
The money had been transferred from that particular account where it had been sent to another account.
[00:30:15] Det.
Deren Jackson: Correct.
It’s, it’s very uncommon.
So they make a big withdrawal from their retirement account.
But the bad news keeps on coming.
So we’re putting…
[00:31:46] Bob: Which will then be taxed again.
[00:31:47] Gary Beerman: Yeah, be taxed again.
[00:31:49] Bob: Oh my God.
[00:31:50] Gary Beerman: Yeah, it’s a triple-whammy.
[00:32:00] Gary Beerman: Yeah.
[00:32:01] Suzi Beerman: Oh yeah.
We’re going to get that $61,000 back.
[00:32:11] Gary Beerman: Yeah, I have to work for it.
[00:32:12] Bob: And Suzi, you’re, you’re back at work too?
It’s not, it’s not a huge moneymaker, but it does keep me out of trouble.
[00:32:26] Bob: And you’re slowly getting your $61,000 plus taxes back, right?
[00:32:30] Suzi Beerman: Yes, we’ll never get it back.
[00:32:31] Gary Beerman: Very slowly.
I will emphasize the word “slowly.”
[00:32:34] Suzi Beerman: Bob, the fact is that we will never get that money back.
It’s, you know it’s a lot of money for us.
It’s just never, it’s never going to be back.
[00:32:54] Bob: But Gary, the chef, well he’s back.
[00:32:59] Bob: So uh, what’s the status of the kitchen right now?
[00:33:02] Gary Beerman: It’s, it’s done.
It’s, it’s finished, yeah.
[00:33:05] Suzi Beerman: We’re entertaining friends and eating good meals.
[00:33:09] Gary Beerman: Yeah, it’s, it’s wonderful.
[00:33:14] Gary Beerman: Um, wow, that’s a good question, Bob.
Um…
[00:33:17] Suzi Beerman: Wow, Bob.
[00:33:18] Gary Beerman: I think it was probably a, an omelet.
(laughs) I think it was the first morning.
[00:33:24] Suzi Beerman: Yeah, we got to break a lot of eggs (laughs).
[00:33:26] Gary Beerman: It was the first morning, so I think it was an omelet.
And…
[00:33:42] Bob: That must have felt good, right?
This place is gorgeous."
We absolutely are blessed.
But I don’t want this to happen to anybody else.
I want people to know how to protect themselves.
I want people to know that there really isn’t anybody coming to help you.
There really isn’t.
They don’t really attend to protecting you.
So you have to be suspicious.
You have to have that, that protective paranoia.
Um, you have to help yourself.
You have to take care of yourself.
[00:35:22] Bob: Suzi and Gary have been really surprised how isolating this whole experience has been.
[00:37:00] Gary Beerman: Yeah.
But this, no, you know you’re free to’t quite heal from.
[00:37:18] Gary Beerman: That’s a good, that’s a good point.
[00:37:21] Bob: Wiring money does come with risks.
Generally once the money is sent, the transaction is irrevocable.
It can’t be reversed.
It’s important to know these kinds of things happen.
[00:37:37] Det.
They seem, you know, they rehearse, they seem legitimate.
But there are some um, red flags that somebody may, might notice or pay attention to.
So that, that’s a red flag, right?
Do you have any tips about, specifically about how to make wire transfers more safe?
[00:39:15] Det.
I think that would be really important.
[00:39:53] Det.
Deren Jackson: That’s correct.
[00:39:54] Bob: Could the system for all these things be improved somehow?
[00:39:57] Det.
[00:40:52] Det.
Deren Jackson: Yeah, exactly.
[00:41:00] Det.
[00:41:38] Det.
Deren Jackson: Correct, exactly.
[00:41:58] Det.
Deren Jackson: I think that uh, what I would stress the most is just taking the time.
Don’t, don’t be rushed.
Call, call the company directly.
You know, talk to somebody.
Uh, verify the information before you respond.
[00:42:27] Bob: And if something bad does happen to you, go to the police.
[00:42:33] Det.
Because sometimes we can have successful conclusions to these investigations.
We can identify a suspect, not always, but we do have instances where that is the case.
And if it’s not reported to police, there’s nothing we can do about it.
And I hope that for you too.
For The Perfect Scam, I’m Bob Sullivan.
Call the AARP Fraud Watch web link Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Their trained fraud specialists can provide you with free support and guidance on what to do next.
That address again is: theperfectscampodcast@aarp.org.
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.
