Unfortunately, those in the business of swindling people know where we are the most vulnerable. Once they find that vulnerability, they move in for the kill.
“Do you see this?” Shirley Krohn asks as she shows a certificate awarding her a $300,000 grant from the federal government.
She immediately thought of all the good things she could do with that money.
“I still had some ideas about buying a house for my grandkids, and what not. So, that sparked an interest in me right away,” she said.
It all started with a message she received via Facebook supposedly from her friend “John” telling her he had received $200,000 from the government.
“No paying back on it because it’s not a loan,” he wrote on Facebook Messenger.
“This is a joke, right,” Krohn responded.
“I paid off my behind bills,” John said.
“It really sounds like a scam,” she said.
Krohn has been advocating for seniors since the 1990s, educating them on how to protect themselves from scams just like this one.
But this pitch was supposedly from her friend.
“It’s legit. I won’t get involved if it’s not legit. I’m always careful,” he replied.
The idea of raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars proved too tempting. She let her guard down.
“Not a good decision on my part, but that’s the way it was,” Krohn regrettably said.
She reached out to John’s contact,…
