MALDEN – A national scam blindsided an elderly local artist and left her with little money to pay the rent on her affordable housing complex. The criminals named her while posing as the Border Patrol and U.S. Marshals. Even though she had done her research, the scammers were still able to get her by using increasingly sophisticated technology.
“It’s not like I went into this blindly. I tried to control it,” says Linda Dolph, an artist who creates beautiful prints from her apartment in Malden. ‘I have some money. A friend loaned me a thousand dollars so I could pay the rent.”
Scammers claimed the package contained drugs and money
The scammers called and said they were Border Patrol and that they had a package with her name on it. It was sent from a city in Mexico where she had been before. They claimed the package contained two pounds of cocaine, methamphetamine, counterfeit Social Security cards and money used for money laundering.
The Border Patrol impostor then sent her 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 and be exonerated within 24 to 48 hours. Dolph became suspicious and decided to investigate the officials they claimed to be.
“By the way, I looked at the federal sites and both of the people I spoke to are listed on those federal sites. The phone numbers they called from were listed on those federal sites,” said Dolph, who used a tactic from the Better Business Desk described. (BBB) calls spoofing.
Call spoofing scams
“Before we talked about spoofing, people were surprised that they could show on their caller ID that it was a government ID, but it was a scammer,” said Paula Fleming, a spokesperson for the BBB. “Now they’ve evolved into AI. They can scrape data and use voices.”
The scammers had files, investigation numbers and details of her addresses. Fleming says these are all scare tactics used to make victims feel like they need to act quickly. To clear her name, they said her accounts would be frozen, and that she could withdraw the money now before the freeze took place.
“They weren’t going to tell the bank until the next day, so I couldn’t say anything to the bank,” Dolph said.
Money deposited into Bitcoin machine
If she did, all her assets would be frozen. They then escorted her to a local Bitcoin machine to deposit the money, and then thousands were gone.
“I put all the money into this Bitcoin machine thinking I was creating an account for myself,” Dolph said. ‘I’m stumbling on 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 that this scam is happening nationwide. The BBB has joined in spreading the message.
“It makes me feel a little less stupid, I guess,” Dolph said.
AI is now being used in scams
Fleming says if you receive such a call, you should not provide your information and report it instead. Fleming says evolving technology like AI is bringing old scams back in new ways.
“Although it was a scam by grandparents, they are now actually using voices of what sounds like your grandchildren’s, which they have taken from social media platforms,” Fleming said.
She says if someone asks for payment via Bitcoin, wire transfer or bank accounts, these are all warning signs.
“It’s very difficult to get money back after giving it to scammers,” says Fleming.
Now Dolph’s future housing is in jeopardy as she tries to figure out what to do next.
Mike Sullivan
