This lady didn’t even switch the gloves out when she swabbed me.
And then it dawned on me, what did they put in my mouth?
You just, you lose it.
I, I was in a state of panic.
[00:00:25] Michelle: Welcome back to AARP’sThe Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Michelle Kosinski.
This week, an urgent subject.
[00:01:28] I was desperate.
And they took advantage of me.
[00:01:31] Michelle: As well as from a relentless scammer extraordinaire.
[00:01:34] Not only did I create the cure, but this pill right here is the prevention.
[00:01:51] Rich Goldberg: I definitely know a scam when I see them.
[00:01:53] Michelle: Hey, can we queue some applause or something here now for Rich?
(canned applause) He’s working so hard to keep us all safe from scammery.
We think he well deserves that, the social distancing version of a crowd.
So, welcome Rich, and kindly regale us with some of the worst you’re seeing out there.
And so people take these products believing that they have a cure or a vaccine or some other prevention.
And they may put themselves at risk of the, of.
of getting the illness…
[00:02:38] Michelle: Sure.
That seems to be one of the easier scams to perpetrate.
We’re seeing counterfeit misrepresented personal protection equipment.
[00:03:13] Michelle: Ooh, yeah, well that’s never going to happen.
Any of those jump out at you as particularly awful?
We have one case involving an industrial bleach that was being sold to the public.
We have one case involving ozone therapy, another case involving silver.
[00:03:49] Michelle: Right, and we’ll talk more about some of these supposed therapies later.
These are just egregious.
[00:03:55] Rich Goldberg: They said that silver in the bloodstream will usher any coronavirus out.
[00:04:43] Rich Goldberg: He did not have anywhere near the masks that he claimed to have.
[00:04:47] Michelle: Ah, okay.
Some even offer nonexistent free stuff like iPhones.
Google identified more than 300,000 suspicious websites in March alone.
Amazon has taken down more than a million items already in thousands of sellers' accounts.
Worse, someone who was already suffering painfully from coronavirus down in Louisville, Kentucky.
Hi, Shannon, how are you doing now?
[00:06:07] Shannon Wilson: I am doing much better.
Um, the CDC released me earlier this week.
[00:06:34] Shannon Wilson: Yeah.
[00:07:10] Shannon Wilson: And I got the diarrhea, the vomiting; the headache never subsided.
I mean I had a headache for almost three weeks.
I’ve got to figure out if I have this or not.
[00:07:24] Michelle: She had been to the doctor, but they had no test for COVID-19.
You could just drive up and get one.
And she was also feeling pressure from work to determine whether she had the virus.
[00:08:05] Michelle: That’s, to me, that sounds crazy.
[00:08:21] Shannon Wilson: I could barely, no, not really.
Okay, well you’re already distressed.
[00:08:42] Shannon Wilson: Yeah, I had to get in my car, I was sick.
[00:08:44] Michelle: Could you breathe at this point?
[00:08:47] Shannon Wilson: I was having difficulty breathing.
[00:08:49] Michelle: Oh.
[00:08:49] Shannon Wilson: I was definitely having difficulty breathing.
[00:08:53] Michelle: She drives across town to this church.
How did it look?
How did it feel, lead us through moment by moment as you drive up.
Um, there was a couple of cars in front of me.
There was a couple of cars coming in behind me.
[00:09:21] Michelle: Did it look professional?
Did they look like they had the right equipment on?
[00:09:25] Shannon Wilson: It, yeah, they were all covered in white or blue PPE.
And they all had masks on.
They have little tablets or their cell phones.
Um, they have gloves on, but I noticed they were kind of big on them.
[00:09:37] Michelle: Oh, my gosh.
[00:09:39] Shannon Wilson: Just was kind of weird to me.
I was like, this has got to be the craziest thing.
[00:09:50] (feed) “Hi, how are you?”
“Hi, how are you?”
[00:09:53] Michelle: She’s greeted by a nice, friendly sounding woman to supposedly help her.
And you could hear it in Shannon’s voice just how poorly she felt.
[00:10:01] (feed) “How did it start?”
“Um, it started with a really bad headache.”
“Um, I lost um, my sense of taste and smell.
My chest feels like a, a elephant sitting on it.
What to do if she starts feeling worse.
She’s very reassuring.
[00:10:44] Shannon Wilson: I was coughing, and having trouble breathing.
She says, though, what they really seemed to want was Medicare of Medicaid information.
They took credit cards.
[00:11:18] Michelle: It just seemed weird.
I felt like, you know uh, uh, the walking dead.
And it was so crazy.
I ended up in a church parking lot and I thought, okay.
[00:12:00] Shannon Wilson: I did notice that one had earbuds on.
They were listening to music, and I was like, are you serious right now?
Just bopping their heads, like everyday normal, and nothing to me was normal, you know.
The first thing they did was take my temperature when I pulled up.
They had the, the rolling thermometers that go across your forehead.
She took one out of her pocket and gave it to her, and then she used it.
There, there was no sanitation, no nothing.
She didn’t even wipe that off before she ran it across my forehead.
[00:13:21] Michelle: This is getting like dangerous at this point.
So you start noticing certain things.
The RN just had a red tag with the same HIPAA certification, that just said RN.
No name, no picture, no nothing.
She had big gloves on, too.
The gloves were just too big for their hands.
[00:13:46] Michelle: Maybe the strangest part was the test itself.
[00:13:59] (feed) “All right, sweetie.”
“That’s it, thank you.”
“Thank you.”
“Feel better.”
“Thank you.”
[00:14:09] (feed) “Just trying to breathe is, is a fight.
This is the worst thing, and I mean the worst thing.
You’ve got to be careful.
You have a fear that you may not even make it through the night.
You’ve got to take it seriously.”
The testers had gone.
[00:16:01] Shannon Wilson: And I lost it.
I totally lost it when he said, “Shannon, hon, I’m so sorry.
They’re not here.
The police are here.”
I need to know if this is a scam.
I just gave these people $240.
That was my whole thought process.
And then I it dawned on me, what did they put in my mouth?
You know, what did they, what did… you just, you lose it.
I, I was in a state of panic.
[00:16:52] Michelle: That night she ended up in the hospital.
They helped her, tested her, and she was able to go home the next day.
She did have coronavirus and felt doubly hurt from her scam experience.
[00:17:20] Michelle: So do they think she’s part of the scam?
I really don’t know.
Why would you do this?
[00:17:41] Shannon Wilson: I absolutely did.
[00:17:42] Michelle: Oh, you’re, you’re like an investigator here.
[00:17:44] Shannon Wilson: I was livid.
[00:17:46] Michelle: I can imagine.
So it’s like she’s, just like all I do is answer medical questions.
Which is kind of crazy because the lab said the same thing.
[00:18:29] Michelle: This group of testers had set up sites in three places just in Louisville.
That was my whole point.
[00:19:17] Michelle: What do you think about people who would do something like this?
[00:19:21] Shannon Wilson: They’re the scum of the earth.
They they no conscience.
I just don’t know anybody who would take advantage of sick people, and possibly dying people.
[00:19:34] Michelle: Shannon has also been in touch with the FBI.
She says they told her they are investigating this, and similar scams in several other states.
[00:19:44] Shannon Wilson: They go to large, populated areas that have Medicare, Medicaid.
They are exploiting low income communities.
[00:19:53] Michelle: This is so painful to hear about.
[00:19:55] Shannon Wilson: And they now have my DNA.
[00:20:14] Michelle: Right.
What would you say to these people today if you could have the mastermind in front of you?
[00:20:20] Shannon Wilson: Shame on you.
I mean, there may be a few more choice words, but shame on you.
People are literally dying, and you are stealing money from them.
I was desperate, and they took advantage of me.
And I was fearful that I wouldn’t even see my kids again.
It’s been a long road.
Obviously, another scam.
More of those emails would follow.
Maybe you’ve gotten some too.
So now, let’s take a look inside the world of this scammer.
As Shannon asked, what kind of person would take advantage of people at a time like this?
[00:21:35] (clip) I’m Keith Middlebrook.
Today is March 9th, 2020, I’m on the beautiful Maybach.
[00:21:47] Michelle: Keith Middlebrook is 53 years old living in Southern California.
[00:22:26] (clip) Great, ‘cause we’re going to win.
Everyone on my team, is a winner.
That’s what we do.
That’s what I train people to do.
That’s what I am.
I live it, I breathe it, I sleep it.
I’m here to make you successful.
[00:22:38] Michelle: He has a website called “Keith Middlebrook Pro Sports Entertainment.”
It was unclear what this company does.
There are ads for occasional seminars featuring him on sports training, supplements, and wellness.
you better look this guy up and see some of this.
All of which seem to be bogus when you nudge the links.
His photo is him in a suit standing in front of a private jet and a luxury car.
[00:23:32] (clip) And think like a millionaire.
There really doesn’t seem to be anything this Keith Middlebrook can’t do.
[00:24:10] (clip) Keith Middlebrook, November 15th, 2018.
[00:24:15] Michelle: What he leaves out naturally is his federal indictment six years ago for fraud.
That case ended up being dismissed though because prosecutors took too long to bring it.
And then when coronavirus appeared, he claimed to have cured that too.
Don’t listen to the negative news and the negative media of the coronavirus.
There’s already an antidote, people are getting up out of the hospital and walking away.
[00:25:05] Michelle: Federal prosecutors say he was trying to make money on this.
A lot of money.
One million would become 100 million.
[00:25:34] (clip) This is it right here, the pre-loaded injection.
Yes, I created the cure that shuts down the COVID-19.
Sucks the cells from the coronavirus; detach, release, and die within 48 hours.
I’ve been studying cell tissue and chemical biology for well over two decades; I’m beyond qualified.
[00:25:58] Michelle: Uh, he means omniscient, or all-knowing.
A video on YouTube featuring his fake miracle cure has also been taken down.
[00:26:34] (news clip) Feds say an LA man was preying on people’s fears.
He got a million hits on Instagram which proved to be his undoing.
[00:26:45] Michelle: And that is the arc of the scammer.
He’s charged with wire fraud.
So let’s talk to the DOJ’s Rich Goldberg again about all we’ve heard.
There’s a lot out there.
[00:27:12] Michelle: And I find these fake cures so outrageous and infuriating.
[00:28:24] Rich Goldberg: So there is, is an unapproved uh, treatments.
There is uh no real evidence that was offered.
There’s no substantiation that there was provided for these claims.
[00:28:51] Michelle: Oh, okay.
We don’t move from one case to another because that tends not to have a very effective result.
[00:29:10] Michelle: Got it.
So we’ve done that in tech support fraud, we’ve done that in mass mailing fraud schemes.
We really try and dig in.
[00:29:58] Michelle: Very good.
And what would you say is the most difficult part of your job?
[00:30:02] Rich Goldberg: Seeing the victims.
You never get used to hearing the stories of individuals.
You know, we deal in mass victims.
A lot of our cases involve dozens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands of victims at times.
[00:31:01] Michelle: Thank you.
I really appreciate the work you do, too; this is wonderful.
[00:31:15] Michelle: Yeah, for sure, for sure.
All right, well good luck and stay safe out there.
[00:31:20] Rich Goldberg: Thanks very much.
Be sure to find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts.
For AARP’sThe Perfect Scam, I’m Michelle Kosinski.
AARPs Fraud Watch internet can help you spot and avoid scams.
