ANACONDA — The shame hit first.
Susan Bivens told no one for weeks after gleaning the terrible truth.
Bewilderment and anger followed.
She wondered how she let this happen.
An ambitious scam swindled about $212,000 in life savings and retirement funds from Bivens. The ruse unfolded from May to August 2022.
The financial straits that followed forced Bivens, 72, to sell her spacious Victorian home on Maple Street in Anaconda and move into a 500-square-foot home on East Park Street.
One key player was a flimflam man claiming to be an agent from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Bivens, a native of California, had moved to Anaconda in 2015 to be near her son and his family.
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“I wanted to be the grandmother who lived down the street,” she said during an interview Thursday.
She had retired in 2015 as a registered nurse with experience in intensive care and in quality and risk management. Bivens envisioned a comfortable, secure retirement and travel, including cruises.
The deception began in late May.
Bivens noticed Amazon had charged her checking account for purchases she hadn’t made. She contacted Amazon and worked it out and changed…
