The criminals have gotten away with the $300 deposit, and theinformationthey have stolen is much more valuable.
[00:00:15] Lorraine Robertson: Gut-wrenching.
That’s the word I can use, it’s just gut-wrenching.
(MUSIC SEGUE)
[00:00:32] Bob: Welcome back to The Perfect Scam.
I’m your host, Bob Sullivan.
[00:00:36] Bob: Scams involving utility companies are relatively common.
Meet Lorraine Robertson of West Palm Beach, Florida.
[00:01:09] Bob: And how long have you been in West Palm Beach?
[00:01:10] Lorraine Robertson: I’ve been living here in West Palm since 2015.
[00:01:23] Bob: On nice.
That’s an, an amazing gift for your parents and for your whole family I would think.
So of course, absolutely.
They’d been, you know, did for their family their entire life.
It’s a job she takes very seriously.
You’ll find out why that’s important soon.
But Lorraine also takes her job as a daughter very seriously.
Living with her aging parents is a gift, she told me.
And that’s the truth … everybody loved him.
My father didn’t have any enemies.
He was, he was a good man, he really was.
He was a good man.
We came from Scotland.
[00:02:30] Bob: Oh wow.
[00:03:11] Bob: And he worked as an electrician for many decades I’m guessing, right?
[00:03:14] Lorraine Robertson: Absolutely, yes, owned his own business.
[00:03:16] Bob: Did you ever go to work with him?
[00:03:45] Bob: I believe it.
[00:03:46] Bob: They’d always been close.
He didn’t have complications from anything else other than he had bad circulation.
So he was, you know, having a lot of difficulty with that.
[00:04:38] Lorraine Robertson: So it was tough in the last couple of years for him.
It was, uh, circulation was bad.
[00:04:53] Bob: Oh.
He had had enough.
[00:05:10] Bob: He went when he wanted to.
[00:05:12] Lorraine Robertson: Yeah, he really did.
I think he knew what he was talking about.
[00:05:23] Bob: Well I’m sorry that you lost him.
[00:05:25] Lorraine Robertson: Me too.
My best friend, my confidante, my hero.
[00:05:29] Bob: Lorraine is heartbroken.
But the grief is complicated by … well you know everything happens at once.
[00:05:37] Bob: Your mom got sick right after that too, right?
[00:05:40] Lorraine Robertson: My mother got very sick after that.
[00:06:01] Lorraine Robertson: It was a lot.
[00:06:02] Bob: Yeah, yeah, you know.
[00:06:03] Lorraine Robertson: I was planning my father’s celebration of life.
[00:06:14] Lorraine Robertson: Funerals are very upsetting and you know hard on people.
My father, he had been to too many of them he said, didn’t want that.
And he made that perfectly clear many years ago, and he wanted to have a celebration.
He wanted everybody to have another drink on Bill.
And that’s what we did.
We had a really nice celebration of life and uh, many people came.
And everybody got to have another drink with Bill.
So it was good.
[00:06:38] Bob: That’s very beautiful.
[00:06:39] Lorraine Robertson: And I was planning that.
[00:06:57] Lorraine Robertson: A lot of people had their say, yep.
And uh it was nice.
[00:07:44] Bob: Lorraine’s electricity is in her dad’s name.
And the letter from the electric company says she has to update her account.
Anna tells Lorraine she has to close her current account and open a new one.
And she was very nice.
“I’m so sorry for your loss.”
[00:08:37] Bob: Anna is incredibly kind.
Changing a name like this is another one of those terrible moments that make a death feel so final.
And Lorraine starts to cry.
She takes all the details right while Lorraine is on the phone.
As I’m on the phone with her, I’m, of course, getting emails from FPL.
You’re closing this account.
You’re opening this account.
[00:09:35] Bob: But there’s a small hiccup with the transaction.
There’s a balance left to be paid on the old account.
It wouldn’t accept it.
“So I did.
I used your credit card, and it went through.
But I only put it through for 300.”
And she said, “Don’t worry about it.
We’ll get the $67, we’ll put it on your bill.
When you get your first bill…” blah, blah, blah.
And I said, “Oh, okay, great.
Not a problem.”
I was all set with Anna.
[00:10:21] Bob: Well, not quite all set.
Like many Florida residents, Lorraine has solar panels at her house.
And she gets credit from the power company for electricity she sends back onto the grid.
It says she hasn’t been paying her bill.
[00:11:04] Lorraine Robertson: This bill is telling me that I’m past due.
you’re able to imagine my surprise.
I said, “I’ve never gotten a late notice in my life on anything.”
On any of my, you know, no water bills, no electric bills.
You just, they’ve always been automatically paid, so we’ve never had any issues.
And I said, “No, no, no, no, no.
Lorraine’s frustrated, angry, confused.
[00:12:08] Lorraine Robertson: The first gentleman I spoke to, his name was William.
And he said, “William.”
And I looked up and I said, “Thanks, Dad.”
Because I really don’t think that they were after the money.
It’s $300, but it’s my information.
They have my name, my address, my social, my date of birth.
[00:13:40] Lorraine Robertson: Oh, gut-wrenching.
That’s the word I can use, it’s just gut-wrenching.
And you feel so foolish that you let them you know, get you.
Don’t talk to, you know, don’t give people information.
It’s very difficult on your, your loved ones that are left behind.
I have, was getting ready to go back to work.
Planning his end-of-life celebration, you know trying to keep everything together.
She had a severe UTI.
They kept her hospitalized for four days and on heavy duty antibiotics.
It was, it was a lot.
[00:14:56] Bob: Lorraine still can’t believe what an actress this Anna was on the phone.
I said, even just you know taking his name off.
I said, it’s something so terrible, but it’s so final, I said.
You know, it’s emotional.
[00:15:14] Bob: And she heard you cry and still went through with all this.
[00:15:17] Lorraine Robertson: Oh yeah.
I mean told her everything.
[00:15:30] Bob: That’s amazing that someone could do that, it really just is amazing.
[00:15:33] Lorraine Robertson: Yeah.
And I think I’m talking to this wonderful woman at FPL.
I mean that’s just disgusting right?
[00:15:53] Lorraine Robertson: Yeah, that’s what they’re doing.
[00:15:55] Bob: Oh God.
[00:15:55] Lorraine Robertson: They want to just; they don’t care who you are.
And you know she’s asking me you know, “Were you close to your father?”
“Oh God, yes,” you know, I said, “Yes, very close.”
[00:16:22] Lorraine Robertson: Yeah, my water company.
It would be so easy just to say, “No problem, we understand.
You’re going through a terrible time.
Let’s just change it from one name, first name, to the first name of another.”
The woman who said she was Anna seemed to even know all about solar power credits.
And I said, “What?
They already inspected it.
I don’t need an inspection.”
And she said, “Well let me call you back.”
And she called me back.
Like she had talked to a supervisor at FPL.
[00:17:18] Bob: But she also knew, knew the terminology, right?
I mean she’s clearly at least…
[00:17:21] Lorraine Robertson: She knew everything.
[00:17:22] Bob: Yeah, she’s familiar, I mean as if she worked there.
Do you suspect they were, you know, reading obituaries or something like that?
Is that how they found out about your dad?
I didn’t put anything on Facebook.
I mean of course they all knew, but um, you know just to put something out there.
And I’m sure they preyed on many other people doing this too.
I know I can’t be the only person.
He’s been investigating fraud and scammers for a long, long time.
And that’s what I said.
I thought I really got a letter from FPL.”
[00:18:49] Lorraine Robertson: It is.
[00:18:50] Bob: Yeah.
[00:18:50] Lorraine Robertson: I said, it’s genius.
[00:18:52] Bob: Heinous.
I mean to prey on people who just lost a loved one.
But sadly, it happens.
But this digital version of that kind of crime is easier and less risky for criminals.
That’s why Lorraine was anxious to speak with us to tell everyone about what happened to her.
I have a friend who runs an organization up here in West Palm, Seniors Helping Seniors.
I made sure that they knew.
[00:20:36] Lorraine Robertson: I don’t think it’s the money they wanted.
Why, what are they going to do with my information?
[00:20:51] Bob: And that part really stings because Lorraine takes financial privacy very seriously.
I run credit for people all day long.
I work at a car dealership.
I’ve been a sales manager.
I have people’s protected information.
I protect it like it’s my own.
We do everything we can to protect people’s information.
And now they have all my information out there.
Independently verify the number.
Lorraine has some other advice too.
Add your name now.
Put your name on.
And you face going through what I went through.
[00:23:27] Bob: And she’s still going through.
And she’s still taking care of her mom and still grieving for her dad.
[00:23:44] Bob: How is your mom now?
[00:23:45] Lorraine Robertson: She’s pretty good.
She’s doing well.
Today is my parents' anniversary, so today’s a tough day for her.
[00:23:51] Bob: And I’m sure a tough day for you too.
[00:23:52] Lorraine Robertson: Yeah, it would have been 67 years today.
[00:23:54] Bob: Thank you for taking time on your parents' anniversary to talk with us.
I really appreciate that.
To talk about this problem a little more, we invited Mary Ann Miller to speak with us.
She is Vice President at a company named Prove which provides identity verification.
She’s also a fraud and cybercrime executive advisor.
Have you heard of this before?
And this is very common and rising types of scams.
They can you know wipe out a person’s entire bank account.
How worried should she be about that?
[00:25:28] Mary Ann Miller: Yeah, she should be very worried.
They know that obtaining the ability to get the information from the consumer is just the first step.
They can apply for almost anything that um, an average consumer could, could apply for.
And she’s seen some crazy things.
And then, long story short, we finally got that system up and running.
And he was…
[00:27:03] Bob: Wow!
So that was kind of a, a crazy story.
[00:27:20] Bob: I bet it was a bit eye-opening too.
[00:27:22] Mary Ann Miller: Yeah, it was eye-opening.
Fortunately, we don’t run into that too often.
All the fraud folks I usually work with really are mission-driven and very uh, good people.
But in this case, it ended up being a very, you know shocking story.
Who knows who this podcast host is who’s on the other end of the phone, right?
[00:27:54] Mary Ann Miller: Yeah, that’s right, Bob.
Who could that be?
And uh that’s right.
I know we’ve, it’s a problem we’ve been working on for a long time.
What do you think?
[00:28:19] Mary Ann Miller: I think it’s getting worse.
And, and I’ll, and I’ll tell you why I think it is.
But that’s all compromised in breaches as we’ve been talking about.
It’s a crime.”
So clearly this is some sort of mass effort.
What do you think?
Is this really my bank trying to contact me?
It’s not just um, you know respond immediately.
[00:30:22] Bob: I like that, waiting for the second beat.
Can you explain to me what you mean?
[00:30:25] Mary Ann Miller: I mean that, you know, we often act with urgency.
We act right away.
And I like the, you know, kind of 24-hour rule.
You know, don’t respond right away.
Wait a little while and do your own research.
Check and call the, the utility company directly and say, “And did you contact me?”
Call your bank directly and ask them, “Did you contact me?”
Don’t just uh, you know take it for granted that they are reaching out to you.
Oftentimes it’s not them.
It just seems awful.
It’s very um, very easy for the bad actors to take that information and run with it.
It’s actually pretty easy and it’s free at annualcreditreport.com.
But sadly, that’s not going to tell you about every incident of ID theft.
[00:34:01] Mary Ann Miller: Well it’s definitely good to check your credit bureau every year.
Or has my information been exploited to open up a bank account with that lending facility?
[00:35:23] Mary Ann Miller: No, that’s right.
They use those accounts to commit check fraud or money movement fraud.
I mean the criminal did something sort of wrong to flag it to your attention.
And they might be in the middle of an investigation um, about a scam.
ensure that you’re checking your statements and your bank accounts and your credit bureau on a regular basis.
Um, and I also think that, you know, wait for the second beat.
You know don’t respond to scammers.
double-check that you are protecting yourself and not being socially engineered.
[00:38:07] Bob: I know we say it a lot, but always bears repeating.
And of course, you could always contact AARP’s Fraud Watch web link Helpline at 877-908-3360.
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.
