music >> Of course I felt embarrassed, I felt stupid, I felt ignorant, I felt all those negative things and I wanted to kill myself.

When I first realized what had happened.

>> One phone call ruined her finances.

Learn what scammers will do to trick you out of your money.

>> Now I don't click on anything and I mean, I could probably be getting something good, but I'm not going to get it because I'm afraid.

>> Online crooks often target senior citizens.

One woman's story and how to protect yourself.

>> Scammers are sophisticated.

They know what they're doing.

>> And experts are getting the word out, hoping to protect you from falling victim to a scam.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to a special edition of Kentucky edition.

I'm Renee Shaw and we thank you for spending some of your evening with us.

The holidays are a special time for many, but it's also a time for thieves to prey upon the unsuspecting.

Tonight we'll introduce you to some of the scams being used to try to steal your hard earned money.

We begin with Mary Ellen Strange, who lives across the river from Louisville.

She encountered a highly sophisticated scam.

Since having her money stolen, she's spoken freely about her loss to her local women's golf club and even national news media.

Our June Leffler met her at her home this past summer.

>> Mary Ellen Strange lives in southern Indiana with her dog, Bella.

Last year, she got a pesky spam call claiming to be Amazon.

She wasn't falling for it.

>> And I said, this is crazy.

This is not me.

No, I didn't buy a MacBook Pro and ship it to New York, and I don't have time for this right now.

And I hung up the phone.

>> But hours later, she wanted to make sure no one was making purchases with her account.

>> A gentleman answered the phone and he said all the same things to me, and he.

He added to that there were some charges of child pornography purchases made in my name, and that got my attention because I didn't call back the original caller.

I googled Amazon fraud unit and called them.

>> Over seven weeks, scammers posing as federal authorities took nearly $400,000 from strange.

They came to her door and she gave them whatever they asked for.

>> My handler knew where the nearest crypto machine was to my house two blocks away.

He instructed me where to go and what to do.

And it seems crazy.

Of course, when I look back on it now.

But at the time he gave me the impression that he was trying to help me.

This was how he was documenting my money to present to the courts that I was not money laundering.

I had access to that money and I could prove it.

>> She thought this would end with official documents proving her innocence to crimes she never committed.

>> No, he never confirmed the meeting.

I never heard from him again.

No one showed up on Monday.

And that's when I reached out to my family member and said, I think I'm in trouble.

Of course, I felt embarrassed.

I felt stupid, I felt ignorant, I felt all those negative things, and I wanted to kill myself when I first realized what had happened.

>> What made it worse is that she now has to pay $100,000 to the IRS for the pretax money she took out of her retirement.

>> I mean, I don't think you should ever be taxed for money that was stolen from you.

It's not right.

>> She hopes congressional action will solve her tax situation, but she never expects to recoup the money that was stolen.

She has been able to turn a once shameful situation into a lesson for others.

>> I think it does help me to share my story for for me, it's healing.

And also it's it's something I feel like I need to do to help other people.

I don't want it to happen to anyone else.

>> Strange has partnered with AARP to share her cautionary yet empowering tale Far and Wide for Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thank you June.

Though her scammers swore her to secrecy, Mary Ellen Strange did confide in her family once she realized what had happened, including a relative who says who she says is a former FBI agent.

She's now working with the FBI on an investigation, though she doesn't expect to get her money back.

It seems that scammers are out of control, and the FBI says senior citizens are often victimized the most.

In Kentucky, scam reports went from 622 in 2019 to more than 1500 so far this year, and the amount of money lost went from less than 2 million to a whopping 26 million.

And according to the attorney general's office, most of that lost money belonged to seniors.

>> Fraud and scam has increased exponentially during Covid.

I think Covid created the perfect storm for scammers to take advantage of consumers, especially seniors.

We know that just this year alone, Kentucky seniors have reported to our office over $16 million in losses.

>> Senior citizens have become the preferred target, and there are multiple reasons.

>> They have financial savings that they've made Social Security veterans benefits, perhaps.

So there's more assets that can be taken from individuals who are older.

Younger individuals get scammed more often, but they have less money that is lost.

>> The research tells us that about 1 in 44 seniors will report when they've been a victim of fraud or scams.

>> It's underreported, especially by elderly, because of the shame.

>> People shouldn't be embarrassed about it.

Everyone can fall for the right thing.

These people are sophisticated.

They've got technology.

This is how they're making their money.

And it's it's been working for them.

>> The unfortunate thing of financial frauds is that once the money is gone, the money is gone.

>> It's very difficult to prosecute and and track down who these scammers are.

And one of the key reasons is because people are scammed in a number of ways.

They may receive a phone call that appears to be from their bank, and the caller ID actually shows the name of their bank.

Telephone numbers can be spoofed, and quite frankly, what we advise people is if someone calls you, you can never know who you're talking to, regardless of what color ID says.

These scammers are very good.

They're professional.

This is $1 billion industry and they're going to sound like the real deal.

>> I think the key thing is, is education, because if you can spot a fraud, you can stop a fraud.

>> The way most scams work is they always work on your emotions and they want you to act quickly.

If you get a text message, an email or a phone call from someone who says you owe money or your bank account has been compromised, the best thing you can do is to hang up and actually call your financial institution on your own, from a number that you've looked up that you know is legitimate to see if you need assistance, because there's just no way to know who you're talking to anymore.

>> Follow your gut.

Don't be afraid to report.

Don't be afraid to question.

>> The biggest message we want to get out is we want to tell people to report so we can help them.

>> You may not likely get your money back, but the information helps someone else.

>> To help combat scams, Kentucky joined forces with the Better Business Bureau and AARP to create a website that gives Kentuckians tips, a way to report scams and information about how to get their money back if they fall victim.

>> Because for more than 100 years, the B-b-b has helped connect consumers with businesses they can trust and equip them with the tools they need in education to keep their identity and their money out of the hands of scammers.

And because of this website, our educational efforts will be able to spread even further across the Commonwealth through the combined efforts of the Public Protection Cabinet, AARP and the B-b-b, you will be able to keep your hard earned dollars in your pocket in your own communities.

>> It's the mission of the Public Protection Cabinet to keep Kentuckians safe in business, leisure and in daily life.

And we would not be able to meet this mission without addressing something that is putting Kentuckians at risk every day.

And that's scammers.

And as we all know, these scammers, with the emergence of technology, is getting more and more hard to detect.

They sound like people, you know, with AI.

So we've got to do what we can to stop this.

And part of that is making people aware of ongoing scams as we find them out, empowering people to make the right decisions.

And part of that, and I want to really thank our partners here, the Better Business Bureau and AARP, for our partnership, and also want to thank our state agencies.

They're going to be working with us on this, sharing information to try to stop this educate and go after these scammers when it happens.

So and I know, governor, I was talking you mentioned earlier and I get the same text to the scammers that are emailing me saying, I owe you money.

Give it up.

We're coming after you.

Thank you.

>> Thank you all.

>> Well, thank goodness for that.

A reminder that website is stop scams.ky.gov.

So as you've been doing your holiday gift giving, there's a few things to keep in mind.

And we have our good friend Heather Clary who's with the Better Business Bureau.

In fact, she's the community and media relations coordinator for the B-b-b serving the greater Kentucky and South central Indiana areas.

Good to see you again.

>> It's good to see you.

>> So thank you for being a part of you've given us a lot of great advice, not just about holiday scams, but also senior scams.

So we encourage our viewers to go back and watch those interviews.

But let's talk about now that we're so close to the new year about some other items.

Let's start first with some of the New Year's resolutions that people are making and gym memberships.

What are some words to the wise there?

>> Yeah, you're going to hear ads everywhere for that and see them on social media, you know, get in shape this this year.

Be let it be a new you.

This year they might be offering trials free trial for a week.

Or try us for $5 for a month or something along those lines.

So if you want to take advantage of something like that, to maybe join a gym or health club and get into shape, just watch all the fine print.

If you do take advantage of one of those, of course.

Check out the gym or health club with the b-b-b, see what sort of record it has and the way of customer issues.

Have they taken care of those?

You want to look at the gym at different times of day, perhaps that especially that you might visit.

Is it really busy certain times of day?

Is it clean or is the equipment well maintained?

You know, walk in and just look around and see if it looks like, you know, the locker rooms, everything is going to be satisfactory to you.

There's all kinds of different, you know, do they have trainers available that you could hire.

Right.

But one area we run into problems is when people decide, okay, I'm not going to do it anymore.

But you filled out information.

They'll generally take your monthly payment out of a credit card or a bank account.

And some folks have reported trouble getting that stopped.

Oh yeah.

So you do want to watch the bank account if you do decide to drop it, it's not working out.

You may have signed paperwork that says, well, we're going to do this and there's a cancellation fee, whatever it might be.

That's if they just give you a little electronic pad to sign, read what the agreement is.

Just because someone promised you things doesn't mean it's always going to be what they said.

So you want to see it in writing.

You want to check things like what happens if this location closes, if this branch of it closes, do I get, can I just quit or can I go to another one?

By the same token, what if you move somewhere else?

May I use one of your locations somewhere else?

Does this transfer?

Those are just some things you want to ask yourself and check out on the front end.

So there are no surprises that.

>> Many people may have overextended themselves financially during the holidays and find themselves looking for ways to negotiate some debt.

What would you say here?

>> Right?

There's lots of ads out there too, for erase your bad credit.

We can help you with debt negotiation, etcetera.

Well, there's a lot of good businesses out there that can help.

And then there are some that are not so good and make promises they cannot keep.

Of course, you do not want to trust anyone who says we can erase your bad credit.

It took you a while to get to that position.

It's going to take a while to get out of it.

Yeah, yeah.

And you want to watch for things like businesses that tell you don't call your creditors after you've signed up and you're paying them a monthly fee.

We'll take care of it then.

People have said our creditors keep calling us, saying they're not getting anything.

Some of these folks might just wait until they've amassed enough money from you that they feel that they have enough to make an offer to a creditor.

That can happen, too.

So that's how you want to see exactly how they operate.

How does their program operate so that you know exactly what's going to happen?

How many months?

Are there any other fees?

They do need to be registered with state officials in order to do this.

You can find out more information generally on how they work on their company website.

Yeah, but just anything that sounds too good to be true, right?

>> Usually debt consolidation commercials are pretty frequently running and they sound too good to be true.

>> Right?

And one thing people need to keep in mind as well, just because they say, well, we can work with your creditors and and get this taken care of.

Your creditors don't have to do they don't have to enter into an agreement with these people.

>> Good advice.

Good advice there.

Okay.

Refund and exchange policies.

We know people may still be trying to return things that they got that they didn't ask for and do not care to keep.

Talk to us about some things we should keep in mind here.

>> What people should keep in mind is that retailers and stores are allowed to set their own refund and exchange policies, and we tell people to take note of those when they're shopping at the cashier station.

It may be posted, it may be on the receipt you received.

So and then a time frame figures into that as well.

Some stores may say, well, if you bring it back within 30 days of the purchase, we'll give you a cash refund.

If it's been longer than that, it just may be store credit or a card to shop in the store.

So what?

Some of the stores may relax their policies a little bit after the holiday season, but they can set those.

And because the stores are trying to protect themselves as well, so they might have some of those in place.

>> And this is not necessarily a scam information, but I know that I've been caught with returning something that I got online and then having that shipping charge deducted from my refund.

>> Yeah, that can happen.

>> To you.

Yeah.

I mean and that's and that's written somewhere I just didn't look.

>> Yeah.

And there are some items such as electronics, video games, things like that.

Sometimes there's a restocking fee charged if you return something.

So that could blindside you as well.

But just know that that might happen if it is something you have to do, that if it's already opened, that may void anything.

Yeah.

If it's not been opened out of the package, that might make a difference.

It may not.

So you can just find out directly from the retailer and and see what your rights are there.

>> So as we come up on a new year, anything major that you're looking at is like, okay, this is scam ville.

And I want to let people know to look out for it.

>> There's just so much I mean, online is just exploded.

A lot of scams take take place anymore online, on the internet, social media, that kind of thing.

But you know, the B-b-b dot org can be your friend as far as online.

You can check out businesses.

We would urge people to do that.

Before you hire, you can find listings of B-b-b accredited businesses that meet our standards.

They make our free services available to the public because we are a private, nonprofit business organization, and we also have a consumer education fund that allows us to provide some free education programs out there to the public, because we want you to keep your money in your communities, with businesses you can trust, and not lose it to the con artists.

And we appreciate those businesses helping us do that each and every day throughout Kentucky.

>> And it's a protection for consumers, and particularly when you're into home renovation and repair projects.

It's the first place I like to go to see if there b-b-b.

>> And we're here to help businesses too, because you get scammed as well, and we want to help you improve your bottom line as well, so you can look into becoming accredited with us.

We would love to talk to you about that.

>> B-b-b dot org.

Pretty simple.

Heather Clary, thank you so much.

We appreciate you.

Hope you have a great rest of the holiday season.

>> Happy New year.

>> Happy new year.

While anyone can fall victim to fraud, as we've discussed, senior citizens are frequent targets.

Paul Greenwood is a nationally renowned expert on elder abuse.

He's a retired California prosecutor who headed up the Elder Abuse Prosecution Unit in San Diego for 22 years, prosecuting more than 750 cases related to abuse of seniors.

I asked him a while back what makes people 50 and older more susceptible to these types of schemes?

>> But what I found in my experience over these two decades was that it was often because of a need for a relationship, a friendship.

A lot of my victims were people who had lost a loved one, who were lonely, and who were dabbling in social media and getting on different websites, and as a result, they are being targeted.

Another form of it is because people are looking for opportunities to increase their wealth.

They're on fixed incomes and I think the predators, they've long ago figured this all out.

They are targeting particularly older adults over 60 because they are number one.

These older adults have time on their hands.

They are they're ready to pick up the phone, ready to answer an email or a text that comes in.

And and I put myself in this group.

I'm 73.

We are not as technically savvy as other age groups.

And so when we are dealt with an invitation to join a website or a link comes in, often we will follow that instruction because that's been our culture.

And and I think that too often the predators really focus on an emergency situation.

It needs to be handled now.

It needs to be handled in secret.

And I'm going to help you through this.

And something triggers in our brains that says, I need to respond to this.

And so ultimately, the the question comes to money and we find ourselves sucked into this scheme that the predators are so clever at doing.

>> Yeah.

Thanks, Paul Greenwood, for that advice.

Now, recently, the FBI reported a 43% jump in annual reported fraud thefts with an average loss of $83,000.

Adults aged 60 and over filled the most or filed rather the most complaints of any age group.

Here again is our Laura Rogers, who caught up with a barren county woman who fell victim to a tech support scam.

>> He had like a golden tongue.

I mean, he was so calm and so helpful.

>> Gail Korshak of Glasgow, and her husband George were targeted by a tech support scam.

>> My husband was on the computer and it crashed and a number came up on the computer and he called it.

>> She says the conversation continued for about an hour.

The man on the phone insisting he could help get their computer back up and running.

But it would come with a cost.

>> And a way to give the payment would be to go and get this gift card.

Now that sounds so like why wouldn't I have.

It just seems so bizarre now.

But he was just so calm and just I just believed him.

>> As directed, Gail bought that nearly $500 gift card at a local pharmacy.

>> Then he wanted the numbers off of it.

So that's what I did.

I gave him the numbers off of it.

>> Even then, he wasn't done and started pressing Gail for more.

>> He was telling me, okay, now you need to go somewhere else and buy another gift card.

That to me finally clicked in my brain that okay, now let's think about this.

>> She had lost her $500 to a scam, and the perpetrator didn't give up easily.

>> When all of a sudden I kind of went dark.

He kept saying, where'd you go?

Come on back.

Come on.

We need to get another card.

He got a little bit aggressive.

>> I couldn't tell you.

25 people off the top of my head.

I know in this county that have dealt with this easily.

>> Jody Walden has seen this before.

>> You click on something on your computer and suddenly your screen freezes and you have to call Microsoft or whoever they say it is to have it unlocked.

>> As operations manager at a financial planning service, she just happened to have a conversation with Gail the day she purchased that gift card.

>> She said, okay, don't do anything.

Come here.

We'll get to the bottom of this.

>> They build on what they know works, and with technology, there's just easier ways to get Ahold of people.

>> Walden says while anyone can be scammed, it's often seniors that are most vulnerable.

>> As you start losing loved ones, you kind of lose your support team.

So sometimes there's not that oversight.

And frankly, the fact that most seniors tend to have more assets because they've had their entire life to build those.

>> We see with our clients all the time.

>> Financial planner Dan Klein says his company keeps a red flag long, as required by the Securities and Exchange Commission, to document those cases.

>> These scammers, they know what they're doing and they have a target.

We see a lot of recently widowed people, scammers who troll obituaries, and between an obituary and social media, you can find out a lot about somebody.

>> And aside from the instant gratification of quickly getting money, they're also often trying to steal personal information that can lead to financial fraud.

>> When in doubt, just don't click.

If you have any question whatsoever as to whether a text or an email or a link is legitimate, just walk away.

>> Now I don't click on anything and I mean, I could probably be getting something good, but I'm not going to get it because I'm afraid.

>> For Kentucky Edition I'm Laura Rogers.

>> Thank you, Laura Rogers.

Now, you've likely gotten a phone call, email or text message that you didn't think was legitimate.

And there are many ways scammers try to steal your personal or financial information.

And unfortunately, as with Gayle, many times there are successful state and local agencies are leading efforts to prevent that.

And our Laura Rogers is back to take us to the Glasgow Scam jam to learn more.

>> There are bad people out there who are casting wide nets, who are just trying to get a small percentage of people to bite on that initial hook.

>> Dan Klein is a certified financial planner who says his clients are often the target of scams.

>> We see this a lot.

>> And while many times scammers prey on the elderly, not always.

>> We also have normal, everyday people who click on something, who do something that would normally seem reasonable.

>> We spoke with AARP about that.

>> Is it our senior population that you find to be most often targeted?

>> The target for scammers in Kentucky, just like the nation is everybody.

They hit everybody.

>> Studies show millennials are often more likely to fall for scams.

However, Atkins says when they do steal from seniors, they usually get more money.

>> Because seniors have more money typically.

It's a very emotional and physical injury to seniors to lose all their savings.

>> Once someone has already lost their money to a scam, it's virtually impossible to get that money back.

>> That's why prevention is so important with scam jams like this one in Glasgow.

>> Investment scams.

>> Getting out the word about warning signs to watch for.

>> We see a lot of romance scams right now.

Scammers will reach out to their victim and they will try to build some kind of bond relationship.

>> They will then take advantage of that trust to get personal or financial information.

>> They want to get people into a heightened emotional state, because if you're thinking with with your emotions, you're not thinking with your brain, you're thinking with your heart.

And when you're doing that, you don't always make the most rational decisions.

>> That particular.

>> Line says gift cards are also a red flag.

>> They'll encourage the people to go to Walmart or Walgreens and get gift cards and send them to a location.

When you hear gift cards, you think scam.

>> It's important to note government agencies will not contact you by phone to get your personal information.

Cautionary tales of which have been shared at Scam Jam events.

>> There was a woman there who came and spoke.

She was taken for $1.7 million, where she thought she was working with someone from the U.S.

Treasury.

>> So who has heard.

>> A lot of it comes down to trusting your instinct.

>> If it seems too good to be true, it probably isn't.

>> For Kentucky Edition Laura Rogers.

>> Thank you Laura.

That will do it for us.

And you can go on our website to learn more about senior scams at ket.org.

We have full length programs about that, so we hope you stay in the loop and protect yourself.

You can also check us out on the social media channels Facebook, Instagram and X to keep in the loop of all the great programing here at KET, I'm Renee Shaw and I hope to see you real soon.

Take good care.