Bonus: Scam Survivors Use Experience to Help Others
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 15 August 2025
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In this bonus episode, Bob talks with two of the nearly 150 trained volunteers who answer calls on the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline. Dee and Mike, both scam survivors, draw upon their experiences to offer emotional support and guidance to people who have recently been targeted. The helpline is a free resource available 5 days a week.
If you or a loved one has been targeted by a scam, call the AARP Fraud Watch Network Helpline at 877-908-3360.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome back to the perfect scam and to this special bonus episode. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. |
| 0:07.0 | The phone rings and it's a stranger who has just discovered |
| 0:13.0 | that they're the victim of a years-long romance scam, |
| 0:16.0 | or a cryptocurrency scam, or a lottery scam, or a sweepstakes scam. |
| 0:24.5 | What's it like to be the volunteer on the other end of that phone line? |
| 0:30.3 | The victim might have just realized that their entire life savings has been stolen, |
| 0:33.4 | and they've been lied to for months or even years, and it's your job to bring this stranger to a place of hope again. |
| 0:38.1 | What is that like? |
| 0:41.1 | Well, today we have a special treat for you. |
| 0:44.2 | I'm sure you've heard me say it again and again. |
| 0:46.9 | AARP has a wonderful resource called The Fraud Watch Network |
| 0:50.6 | and a helpline that's available five days a week at 877-908-3360. Today we're going to hear |
| 1:00.2 | from two of the 150 volunteers who answer calls on that helpline, mainly so we can understand the |
| 1:06.9 | amazing work that they do, but also so perhaps we can convince someone out there who's |
| 1:11.7 | hurting right now that they can call in and a well-trained counselor will offer non-judgmental |
| 1:17.4 | help, advice, and an empathetic ear. Why do I know the volunteers are empathetic? Well, most end up |
| 1:25.2 | on the helpline because they were once victims themselves and called in. |
| 1:30.1 | That is how Dee Johnston ended up as a volunteer. |
| 1:35.4 | Okay, basically mine was a six-year romance scam, very involved, very intense. |
| 1:43.1 | Dee Johnson isn't her real name. |
| 1:46.2 | Got started slowly, built up to asking for money, obviously. |
... |
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