If you’ve been scammed out of money, you don’t have to go it alone. On this week’s episode of Money, I’m Home, Consumers Fraud Specialist Kristy Desimone shares a few tips on what to do if you’ve been scammed.

 

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0:00:06.6 Lynne Jarman-Johnson (LJJ): Money, I’m home. Welcome in. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson with Consumers Credit Union. From finance to fitness, we have it all. And today we’re going to talk about something that’s a little bit scary, but I’m telling you, we can face together. Kristy Desimone is our fraud specialist. Alright, Kristy, this really did happen to my mom years ago, but it was fraud. It’s still happening today. She received a phone call that sounded like her grandchild, and the grandchild said, “I am being held at such-and-such. I need money. I got into this, Grandma.” I mean, it was so real, and it was so like her grandchild’s voice. Well, we found out later it probably was, because of gaming systems, that she almost sent money to this individual. Kristy, is that just one instance of what fraud is all about and how you can get scammed without even knowing it because you’re a trusting person?

0:01:00.9 Kristy Desimone (KD): Yes, of course, and I’ll be 100% transparent, it happened to me. Back at the beginning of the pandemic, they had a lot of unemployment fraud, and my information got out there, and someone tried to apply for unemployment in my name while I’m still working here at Consumers. I know. So…

0:01:19.1 LJJ: Oh my goodness, Kristy, that is so scary.

0:01:22.3 KD: I know. Yeah, it was a panic moment for sure. Even though I’m trained, even though I’m like, “I’ve helped people walk through this,” it can happen to literally anyone.

0:01:30.0 LJJ: So, Kristy, give us an example of how did you find out? And then what were the steps that you did take? Because you all of a sudden realized, “Look, someone is using my identity.”

0:01:39.4 KD: Right. So, I received a letter to my house from the unemployment agency in Michigan. It said, “Hey, we tried to verify your identity online, but we were unable to, so we’re sending this letter. If you are still filing an unemployment claim, go through these steps in order to do that.” And I was like, “I am not unemployed, and I’m not filing a claim.” So, I reached out to my manager here and I said, “Hey, this is happening. Can you give me some tips on what I need to do?” And one of the things he recommended right away was to call one of the three major credit bureaus, so Experian, TransUnion, Equifax. You reach out to them and you say, “Hey, my social security number’s been compromised. Can I put a fraud alert on my credit report?” And they will do it for a year for free. So, any time someone goes to apply for a loan or open up something in your name using your social security number, they will call you first. And the greatest part is you only have to call one of them because the other two will be notified immediately, so you don’t even have to call all three. You just call one of the top three credit bureaus and they’ll communicate with each other, which was amazing.

0:02:46.6 LJJ: That is such a good point. When you talk about your credit, people want to know what their credit score is. What a great way to double-check that someone is not utilizing you, utilizing you, whether that be to try to get a credit card… As you just noticed for unemployment. When you use those services… I like the fact that you just mentioned that that is complimentary for a year.

0:03:12.6 KD: Right. And when I went to get my car, I had to apply for a loan, obviously, and they called me right away. They called me and said, “Hey, are you at this dealership? Are you getting this car?” And I’m like, “Yeah, I am. It’s me. I feel so safe.” [chuckle]

0:03:25.2 LJJ: That is just so amazing. And you know, something that’s happening out in the world wide web is the fact that you will hear stories almost daily now about the fact that a company may have been compromised. And so your data, if you worked with that company in any way… Let’s say you have an account, may have been compromised too. And I know that happened with me, and I immediately did receive a letter saying, “Here is your free year. You need to sign up for that free year.” But that’s the important part, right? Following up on making sure that it’s authentic, but then taking the steps to protect yourself.

0:04:02.6 KD: Right, yeah. And I did my research, I went onto… I believe it was TransUnion’s website and found their contact number and made sure that everything was legit there. But there are also services that you can pay for. My dad locks his credit completely, so no one can get into it. He pays for a yearly service, and then whenever he needs to use it, he calls them to unlock it in order to be able to use it.

0:04:24.4 LJJ: What an authentic way to do that, you know?

0:04:27.5 KD: Right. Yeah.

0:04:28.2 LJJ: So, there are ways that you can do that for a fee. But if you do get involved into something, then there is a way that is more budget friendly and safe.

0:04:38.7 KD: Right, exactly. And those scams that you were talking about earlier, when they pretend to be a relative, if they are in jail or they’re hurt or something’s happened, those are really tough. Because they play on our emotions. People I’ve talked to that’ve gotten involved in those, they said that they paused for a second and was like, “Hey, how do I make sure this is legitimate?” And they reached out to family members and tried to trace back in order to make sure it was legitimate before sending any type of funds.

0:05:05.5 LJJ: Yeah. It was interesting, my mom got all the way down to the point where she was panicking and she said, “Well, well, okay, I’ll call you back. I need to talk to my son-in-law. He’s an attorney.” And then all of a sudden it was “click.” [chuckle]

0:05:20.5 KD: Yeah. It was like, “Bye.”

0:05:23.3 LJJ: “All right, goodbye.”

0:05:24.0 KD: But yeah, so checking with those family members just to make sure like, “Hey. Have you heard from so-and-so? Are they in trouble?” A lot of times too, my family uses Find Your Friend on iPhones, and we share locations, so sometimes you can check that too to see if they’re actually in a hospital location or anything like that.

0:05:44.1 LJJ: All the new technology that is out there is a wonderful thing, but we all need to be diligent and careful.

0:05:51.1 KD: Agreed 100%, and in calling credit bureaus and making sure you’re safe there, you should also call us and say, “Hey, this has happened. I clicked on an infected link. I called someone who said they’re from Norton, and they’re not.” So, we can open new accounts. We can make sure your information stays safe right away.

0:06:09.8 LJJ: That is awesome, Kristy. I’ll tell you, every time you come on, I learn something new, and I love this… Just the tip about the credit bureau being your friend and trying to protect you. That’s awesome.

0:06:20.7 KD: Yeah. It’s all about education and trying to help. We just want to help you. That’s all we want to do at the end of the day. [chuckle]

0:06:27.0 LJJ: Well, you do that all the time, Kristy. Thank you so much. If you have any questions for Kristy, you can just send them on in, and she’ll be able to help you out. So will our whole Fraud Specialist team. We sure do appreciate you listening today. Thank you so much, Jay Gasoly, for your production skills, and I hope everybody has a very safe and fun week. I’m Lynne Jarman-Johnson. Money, I’m home, with Consumers Credit Union.

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