They begin talking every day.
Tracy thought she was helping him with his business, but really she was being scammed.
She sent him thousands of dollars in products before she learned the man was a known scammer.
Despite her best efforts, she never got her money back.
[00:00:06] This mandisrespected me in every way possible.
He was playing on my heart strings.
He,he took me for every penny.
[00:00:14] HOST:Online romance is a hallmark of modern of life.
Connecting lives, makingsparks, and unfortunately, in many cases, creating victims.
We’ll tell you all about howthese scammers operate and what to look out for.
I’d like to introduce mycohost and AARP’s Fraud Watch internet Ambassador, Frank Abagnale.
Frank, thanksagain for joining us.
[00:00:40] FrankAbagnale: Good to be with you, Will.
[00:01:03] FrankAbagnale: No, people always asked me why you didn’t impersonate a priest.
Isaid, well there was no money in doing that.
[00:01:30] HOST: You mentionedthe doctor and that’s a great story.
[00:01:43] FrankAbagnale: Yeah, actually that was the Riverbend Apartments in Atlanta.
And I said, “Yes.”
She said, “What key in of doctorare you?”
And so I said, “Medical doctor.”
And then I quicklysaid, “However, I’m not practicing medicine right now.
I left my practiceout in Los Angeles to come to Atlanta to invest in some real estate Ihave.”
And they start to quiz and be suspicious of you.
So that’swhere you start to get the things, so you went to Harvard.
Who was yourprofessor in such and such?
And did you know so and so?
Those are the kind ofthings that start happening and you don’t have the answers to.
[00:04:48] HOST: Iwould just say stomach pain at that point.
[00:05:03] HOST: I’mthinking more about this ambassador impersonation though.
Tracy’s storyunderscores how scammers have a special power over their targets when the scamsinvolve the heart.
[00:05:37] Tracy:Hello?
[00:05:38] HOST: It’sWill at AARP.
[00:05:40] Tracy:How’re you doing?
[00:05:40] HOST: I’mgood, how are you?
[00:05:41] Tracy:Okay, thank you.
[00:08:02] HOST: Andwhat, what made you, what prompted you to do that?
[00:08:06] Tracy:Just out of curiosity’s sake, I guess.
[00:08:41] Tracy:Tracy: True.
[00:09:01] Tracy:Later on, later on.
[00:09:13] Tracy:Yes.
He used the excuse that the, the country would not accept his creditcards.
He supposedly was supposed to be working and then something happenedto his tools.
Are you willing to share?
[00:12:00] Tracy: Thewhole total came to $139,000.
[00:12:05] HOST: Wow,so that, that’s not a small amount of money.
[00:12:24] Tracy:Yes.
[00:12:26] HOST:Yeah.
Is it hard to talk about?
[00:12:28] Tracy: Attimes, but I’m, I’m okay with it.
[00:12:31] HOST: Yousound like you are and I’m glad, yeah.
I was clinging onhope that he, he was for real.
[00:12:41] Did youfeel like that you were in love?
[00:12:43] Tracy: Notnecessarily.
He had no family, so I wasthere for him.
[00:13:18] HOST: Whatkind of stuff?
[00:13:43] HOST: Andhe specified the color.
[00:13:44] Tracy: Ohyes.
Yes, it had to be this color.
[00:13:47] HOST:You’re able to talk about this all very calmly.
It sounds like a reallyhumbling experience.
[00:13:55] Tracy:Yeah, you have to eat crow.
You have to eat crow.
[00:14:12] HOST: Thatsounds really, really hard.
You sound like a lovely woman and I hope you don’thave to eat crow for much longer.
[00:14:20] Tracy:Four years.
I, it’s going to take four years to repay the credit cardcompanies.
[00:14:42] Tracy: Uh,drastic.
Him ruining my life, taking advantage of me, and you know, making me afool.
This man disrespected me in every way possible by scamming me out ofevery penny I had.
[00:15:12] Tracy:They will not contact me unless they get a hold of him.
Then they will bringhim to justice.
A widow,living alone, making a connection.
[00:15:44] Tracy: Hewas playing on my heartstrings.
He, he took me for every penny.
[00:15:57] HOST:Frank, Tracy’s story has probably a ton of red flags.
It does help other people who might be goingthrough something similar, so I want to mention that.
These people are experts at doingthis.
You know, as youget older, you realize that you always learn by other people’s mistakes.
If youdon’t, then you have a, you have a problem.
You could go out and buy the Mercedes.
[00:18:26] FrankAbagnale: She’s one of many.
It’s the samething.
It’s like saying you have acompany and you have a Dunn & Bradstreet report with them.
But that would have been factual information, not justinformation he supplied as part of the background.
You know, pay thismuch money to learn more.
[00:20:54] FrankAbagnale: Oh sure.
So a lot of these things are manipulatedfor the use of the person who’s using it.
What can we do if we want to start cleaning stuff up?
You know, it’skind of amazing how much information’s out there.
The question is, how accurate is that information?
And your nameis actually a little more recognizable than my last name.
[00:23:13] FrankAbagnale: Because we’ve got way too much information out there.
I said, well no, I’m probably notgoing to come up with anything.
But today, that’s not the case.
I just needthose two pieces of information.
Your last name, your zip code.
[00:23:49] HOST: Evenif it’s Smith.
I meanit’s so easy to find out that information.
[00:24:30] FrankAbagnale: Right.
The only differencetoday is you’re able to do that from thousands of miles away on your laptop.
You’ll figure it out.
But it used to be the way we did a lot ofresearch.
[00:26:25] HOST: It’shard to be on the lam or live as like a hermit these days.
[00:26:29] FrankAbagnale: Absolutely.
Someone can find out anything about you if they reallywant to.
[00:26:32] HOST:Frank Abagnale, he’s added Ambassador to his resume.
He is the AARP Fraud WatchNetwork Team Ambassador.
[00:26:39] FrankAbagnale: Thank you.
For The Perfect Scam, I’m Will Johnson.
END OF TRANSCRIPT
TIP:Anyone can be scammed; dont be ashamed if you become a victim.
Googling someone just doesnt cut it as the information can be manipulated by the scam artists.
For a small fee, Reputauion.com can help remove your name and information from websites.
However, cannot remove information from government sites.
