Massachusetts woman loses thousands in sophisticated scam, person posed as Border Patrol
MALDEN - A national scam caught an older, local artist off guard and left her with little money to pay rent at her affordable housing complex. The criminals called her posing as the Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals. Despite doing her research, the scammers were still able to get her by using ever advancing technology.
"It's not like I just totally blindly went into this. I tried to check," said Linda Dolph, an artist who makes beautiful prints from her apartment in Malden. "I have a little money. A friend loaned me $1,000 so I could pay rent."
Scammers claimed package contained drugs, money
The scammers called saying they were the Border Patrol, and that they had a package with her name on it. It was being sent from a town in Mexico that she had been to before. They claimed the package had two pounds of cocaine, methamphetamines, fake social security cards, and money for laundering.
The Border Patrol imposter then sent her over to someone claiming to be a U.S. Marshal. They told her she could come to Texas with a lawyer to clear her name or go through another process to be clear in 24 to 48 hours. Dolph became suspicious and decided to check out the officials they were claiming to be.
"By the way, I checked out the federal sites and both of the people I spoke to are listed on those federal sites. The telephone numbers they were calling from were on those federal sites," said Dolph, describing a tactic the Better Business Bureau (BBB) calls spoofing.
Call spoofing scam
"Before we were talking about spoofing, people were amazed they could show on their caller IDs that it's a government ID, but it's a scam artist," said Paula Fleming a spokesperson with the BBB. "Now they evolved to AI. They can do data scraping and voices."
The scammers had case files, investigation numbers, and details about her addresses. Fleming says these are all fear tactics used to make victims feel like they have to move quickly. To clear her name, they said her accounts would be frozen, and that she could take the money out now before the freeze.
"They weren't going to tell the bank until the next day, so I couldn't say anything to the bank," said Dolph.
Money deposited in Bitcoin machine
If she did, all of her assets would be frozen. They then guided her to a local Bitcoin machine to deposit the money, and after that, thousands were gone.
"I fed all of the money into this Bitcoin machine under the idea that I was creating an account for myself," said Dolph. "I am limping along right now. I have some money in an account, and I have some food."
It turns out, she's not alone. The Border Patrol has warned of this scam happening nationally. The BBB has joined in getting the word out.
"It makes me feel a little less stupid I guess," said Dolph.
AI now being used in scams
Fleming says if you get a call like this, do not give your information, and instead report it. Fleming says evolving technology like AI is bringing back old scams in new ways.
"While it was a grandparents scam, now they are actually using voices of what sounds like your grandchildren that they pulled it from social media platforms," said Fleming.
She says if anyone is asking for payment by Bitcoin, wire transfer or are asking for banking accounts, those are all red flags.
"It's very hard to get funds back after giving it to scam artists," said Fleming.
Now Dolph's future housing is in jeopardy as she tries to figure out what to do next.