Dog Hospice Victimized by Bank Impersonation Fraud
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 980 Ratings
🗓️ 6 October 2023
⏱️ 51 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Caring for ailing senior dogs is a passion project for Helen and her husband, who run the nonprofit dog hospice Old Dogs Go to Helen. They rely on donations to pay for the dogs’ medical and comfort care until they pass on. One day, they receive a text message appearing to be from the nonprofit’s Bank of America account, which leads them through a familiar series of steps to secure their accounts from a possible fraud. While Helen thought she was averting a crisis, she was actually the victim of a sophisticated bank impersonation fraud.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on the Perfect Scan. |
| 0:03.0 | He got a text that stated, |
| 0:05.0 | Are you trying to make a $339 purchase at a target in Georgia? |
| 0:10.0 | Answer yes or no. |
| 0:12.0 | And he wrote back no. I was full of relief because I thought okay thank God |
| 0:15.6 | they've canceled the card charge my cards are okay let's just get back to normal and |
| 0:19.6 | caring for the dogs and feeding the kids and all of that stuff. I had that sort of |
| 0:23.3 | nagging at me but not like something bad has happened but I want to make sure |
| 0:27.3 | that this is all okay. So I called the Bank of America number and I said |
| 0:31.6 | what's going on with this and she was like I don't know what you're talking about and then my stomach just dropped. Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host Bob Sullivan. |
| 0:47.0 | Imagine stealing from a dog shelter and not just any shelter, but a hospice shelter where a family takes care of seriously ill animals who have only a few months or even just a few weeks to live. |
| 1:01.0 | We know criminals who operate scams can do some pretty |
| 1:04.8 | despicable things, but today's story might represent a new low. And it's important |
| 1:11.7 | because it's about a crime that the Federal Trade Commission says has increased 20-fold. |
| 1:17.0 | 20-fold in just the past couple of years. |
| 1:20.0 | It all starts with the text message that looks like it comes from your bank. |
| 1:25.0 | Odds are many of you have even received one of those. |
| 1:28.0 | But wait until you hear what happens when one of these texts is received by the nonprofit old dogs go to Helen. |
| 1:37.0 | Brady is one of my favorites. He is a little like black lavish mix.'s 13 we just found out that he has cushings in a huge |
| 1:46.8 | and large liver and we've started him on this very special meds and he's doing so much |
| 1:50.8 | better than he was and he came from an elderly person who could no longer care for him because she had all kinds of health issues and the family couldn't take him. |
| 1:59.6 | So he ended up here and he is just the sweetest little most grateful guy we have |
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