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Massachusetts Woman Loses Thousands in Sophisticated Scam, Person Posing as Border Patrol
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Massachusetts Woman Loses Thousands in Sophisticated Scam, Person Posing as Border Patrol

MALDEN – A nationwide scam blindsided an older local artist and left her with little money to pay the rent on her affordable housing complex. The criminals called her posing as Border Patrol and US Marshals. Despite his research, the scammers still managed to catch him thanks to increasingly advanced technology.

“It’s not like I went into this blindly. I tried to check,” said Linda Dolph, an artist who creates beautiful prints from her apartment in Malden. “I have some money. A friend lent me $1,000 so I could pay my rent.”

Fraudsters claim package contained drugs and money

The scammers called saying they were from the Border Patrol and had a package with his name on it. He came from a town in Mexico where she had already been. They claimed the package contained two pounds of cocaine, methamphetamines, fake Social Security cards and money intended for laundering.

The Border Patrol imposter then sent her to someone pretending to be a U.S. marshal. They told her she could come to Texas with an attorney to clear her name or go through another process to clear the record within 24 to 48 hours. Dolph became suspicious and decided to check out the officials they claimed to be.

“By the way, I looked at the federal sites and the two people I spoke to are listed on those federal sites. The phone numbers they were calling from were on those federal sites,” Dolph said, describing a Better Business Bureau tactic. (BBB) ​​calls identity theft.

Call spoofing scam

“Before we talked about identity theft, people were amazed that they could say on their caller ID that it was a government ID, when it was a scammer ” said Paula Fleming, spokesperson for the BBB. “Now they have evolved into AI. They can retrieve data and voices.”

The scammers had records, survey numbers and address details. Fleming says these are all fear tactics used to make victims feel like they need to act quickly. To clear her name, they said her accounts would be frozen and she could withdraw the money now before the freeze.

“They weren’t going to tell the bank until the next day, so I couldn’t tell the bank anything,” Dolph said.

Money deposited into a Bitcoin machine

If she did so, all her assets would be frozen. They then guided her to a local Bitcoin machine to deposit the money, and after that, thousands of people disappeared.

“I pumped all the money into this Bitcoin machine with the idea of ​​creating an account for myself,” Dolph said. “I’m limping right now. I have money in an account and food.”

It turns out she’s not alone. The Border Patrol warned of this scam happening nationwide. The BBB joined the campaign to spread the message.

“It makes me feel a little less stupid, I guess,” Dolph said.

AI is now used in scams

Fleming says if you get a call like this, don’t give out your information and report it instead. Fleming says evolving technologies like AI are bringing back old scams in new forms.

“Although this is a grandparent scam, they are now using the voices of what sound like your grandchildren to extract them from social media platforms,” Fleming said.

She says if someone asks for payment by Bitcoin, bank transfer or asks for bank accounts, these are all red flags.

“It’s very difficult to get funds back after giving them to scammers,” Fleming said.

Dolph’s future home is now in jeopardy as she tries to figure out what to do next.