Vermont Woman Recoups $1.3M 4.5 Years After a Scam
The Perfect Scam
AARP
4.5 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 8 May 2026
⏱️ 55 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Jeanette moves back to Vermont, expecting a peaceful retirement in a beloved community, but a tech support scam upends her life. She reaches out to her local police, who advise her to report the incident to the FBI. Now faced with an empty bank account, Jeanette starts making drastic changes to her lifestyle. She unplugs appliances to save on electricity and sets her thermostat to 58 degrees throughout the winter. After more than four years of living frugally and juggling tax bills, on Christmas Eve in 2025, Jeanette's life takes another unexpected turn.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This week on The Perfect scam. |
| 0:04.0 | I thought, oh my God, how am I going to do this? |
| 0:08.0 | So I just didn't spend any money. |
| 0:12.0 | Unplugging everything in my house, unplugging lamps and stuff like that. |
| 0:18.0 | I wanted to make some toast. I'd plug in the toaster. |
| 0:22.1 | Toast the toast. |
| 0:23.6 | Unplug it. |
| 0:24.4 | Take the toast out. |
| 0:26.0 | Same thing with the coffee machine. |
| 0:28.4 | Didn't you set your thermostat at a very low temperature? |
| 0:31.6 | 58. |
| 0:32.8 | You spent January and February in Vermont with your house at 58 degrees. |
| 0:36.9 | Yes. |
| 0:38.8 | For a couple of years. |
| 0:47.1 | Welcome back to the perfect scam. |
| 0:48.9 | I'm your host, Bob Sullivan. |
| 0:52.5 | It's winter 2025. |
| 0:56.0 | Jeanette Voss is living alone in her Vermont home. It's a typically cold New England night, but she's got her thermostat set to about 60 degrees. |
| 1:02.0 | And she's sitting in the dark. |
| 1:04.0 | She won't even turn on her lights. |
| 1:06.0 | She's trying to save every penny. |
| 1:09.0 | She's wearing a line shirt, a gift from friend Tricia Delano, who is worried that |
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