WEBVTT
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This program is designed to provide general information with regards
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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
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suggested ideas. The information contained in this podcast is intended
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for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for
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individual professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled
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from vetted sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to
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safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall
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victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the
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must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves
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and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific
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time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,
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and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips
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on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And
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now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
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Welcome back everyone, I'm Joyce Petrowski, founder and board president
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of Rose Resources Outreach to Safeguard the elderly. You can
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find more information on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org.
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You'll find our social media links on the homepage, and
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if you scroll all the way to the bottom, you'll
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see where you can sign up for the newsletter. We
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do one via email has a lot more information, but
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we also do one that we send in the mail,
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realizing that not everybody likes to get their information and
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read it on email, So you can sign up for
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one or both as a way to continue to get
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this scam prevention education and to help build your healthy
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skepticism because you need that in today's world with how
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rampant the scams are running. So today we have a guest.
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His name is Aaron. He has been in the cybersecurity
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industry as a leader for a number of years and
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he's going to share his experience.
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Pros. There, can you hear me, Joyce? There?
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He is.
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Left already no.
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Good, good, Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.
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Yeah.
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So when I introduced you, I you know, I mentioned
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that you've been a leader in cybersecurity for a number
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of years, but you've all, but you're here to share
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your experience with one of your loved ones being a
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scam victim and how it's affected your relationship, your family
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and all of that. So let's start with just giving
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whatever you feel comfortable with the background on the scam
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and your your loved one.
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Yeah, yeah, absolutely, yeah.
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So this this started a number of years ago, and
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that's actually how I came in contact with with you
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and found found Rose because it became one of those
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things that was incredibly frustrating to see happened to a
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loved one, and especially being I have worked in this,
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worked in cybersecurity and led teams and you know, just
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the the resources that are simply non existent and not
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available out there, because this is really comes down to
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it's really not a technical problem, right, It's a human problem.
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It's an emotional problem.
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And so yeah, for for us, it started a few
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years ago with my with my father in law, and
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it starts really small, and so I think the thing
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to think about is like just to notice those little
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red flags that come up. And so for for us,
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it started maybe four or five years ago. It was
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right around COVID times. I remember really specifically because it
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had started.
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Right leading up to.
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Thanksgiving, and we got a you know, kind of a
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weird exchange text message where he had asked for you know, hey,
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I can you know, I need a little bit of
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extra money or whatever I'm going to be because, uh,
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our loved one, my father in law, was very dedicated
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to a church, very involved constantly, you know, working on
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projects with the church to you know, feed feed the needy.
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And so one of the things that came up is
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that he said, oh, you know, I can can maybe
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send me two hundred bucks for we want to buy
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some turkeys or whatever. It was that well, you know,
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we're doing for this thing, right and and we didn't
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think much of it at the time, but like in
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the back of your mind, you're thinking, oh, that's it's
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kind of a strange thing, right because normally very disciplined,
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you know, fixed income, but very disciplined, very good with it.
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And thinking back that, you start to think, like that
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should have been a big a red flag to pick
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up on.
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So, you know, noticing something like that that was.
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Out of out of the norm was, uh, it was
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a red flag that we we probably should have picked
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up on at that time and drilled you.
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In a little bit more.
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Yeah, you know, it's you know, like you said, your
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father in law was very disciplined. He's on a fixed income,
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which a lot of older adults are on a fixed income,
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and he was very disciplined. So he he had a budget,
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and he stayed within that budget and and and all
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of that, and so being scammed would have been probably
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your last thought.
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M exactly.
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No, And and.
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He was very involved in his church and and helping
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those less fortunate and and.
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All of that.
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And so you're like, okay, well it makes sense that
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he's going to be helping people with turkeys at the
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at Thanksgiving time?
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Yeah? Yeah.
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Was there was there another after that? Was there something
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that made you start to want to dive into it deeper? Yeah?
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Yeah, So I think and and and I think this
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this happens to to far too many people. And it
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happened a lot with you know, his folks became a
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little bit more isolated with with the pandemic, and and
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so that every lots everyone challenged with that. And one
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of the catalysts that really kind of accelerated our awareness
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and concerns with with what was going on was his
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his wife had passed away. And so we were, yeah,
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you know, talking with him more regularly and kind of
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getting a sense of it. And then the thing that
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kind of came out of it was, you know, oh, hey,
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I'm I'm you know, I'm I have this you know,
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I'm gonna you know, I have this new girlfriend or
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wife or whatever it is. It's going to come, you know,
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move in with me, right, And so that was really
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the start of the romance scam side of the okay,
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because you know, and didn't didn't this clearly supprise us
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that you know, you know, he was you know, you know,
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very dedicated to his church and you know, companionship and
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and all those things. And we thought, oh, that's it's quick,
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but like, okay, let's let's learn more about it. And
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then at that point, once we learned a little bit
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more about that, he started opening up and sharing and
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then you started to you start to realize that, you know, you're,
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you know, in the midst of a of a pig
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butchering scam, because it's you know, it kind of followed
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followed all the same patterns of how they're going to
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come move with me, Oh they can't move. There was
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a car accident. Yeah, now, they're in the hospital, we
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just have to you know, send some money to to
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release them from the hospital. And so in in in
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those in those situations where it's it's really challenging. And
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then that's where I started doing the research to try
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and find like, how do you how do you talk
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to someone with this because there's no reasoning, right because
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in their minds, that person's real, right, Like that's a
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loved one about that's in the hospital that you're saying absolutely,
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that's not a real thing, right, And you know, the
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thing that we always try to be delicate about was
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not too upset or push away and just kind of
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lead with some empathy because that you take a hardline stance.
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And my wife is way more empathetic than me and
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better than it.
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I'm I am more direct in a lot of those senses.
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But but this but the second that you go to
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rack and you say this is not real, this is
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you know, this is bad, you risk the chance of
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getting shut out, right. And so you see that all
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the time across these instances where people isolate themselves from
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their family because they are so ingrained with with with
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their with their scamera. That's that's just grooming them constantly, right.
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Exactly right.
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So I mean did he did he ever come out
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and say, like how long he had been engaging in
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conversation and relationship with this person? Because you know, we
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always say with the romance and the pig butchering and stuff,
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there's grooming involved, right, And it the longer they're in it,
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the harder and harder it is to try to get
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them to understand while, yes, this person is real, they're
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not who they say they are.
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They're not in the hospital.
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And doctor Martina Dove was on last month and she
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even said, you know, people have to understand that the
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groomer is a real person. It's someone that that the
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victim believes has invested a lot of time with and
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it's extremely difficult to change their.
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Mind, oh one hundred percent.
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Especially becomes much more challenging in a remote situation where
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we we live in different states, and so you know,
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we we live for those few moments where either we
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travel to go be there, and we've we had done
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that a couple of times. And I'll kind of explain
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and talk about that in a second here, but but
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this this was with him all the time, right, all
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the time, and and it's just yeah, a constant, constant
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stream of you know, messages and contact. And but but
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to your to your original question, uh, because we later
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kind of found out that I think it had been
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going on prior to that, where there was some inheritance
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things kind of going on that had led up prior
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to that of like, you know, because he had read
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around that same time with the romance romance scam situation.
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He had also sent a link that said, oh what
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do you think of this house? Oh, it's it's going
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to be mine. It's you know, it's going to be inherited, right,
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And so with with many of the situations, you you know,
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you become a you're a target rich environment, your phone
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number becomes available, and then he was just getting you know,
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propagated with with multiple different types of things and so and.
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He was vulnerable because he had just lost his wife right.
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Exactly exactly, and we think it maybe it started kind
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of leading up to that, you know, prior to that,
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but then just uh had you know, exponentiously gone gone
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up after after that, and so yeah, and then and
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then it got to the point after kind of those conversations,
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the Thanksgiving thing, the you know, the inheritance house situation,
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the romance scam, and the hospital thing, and then it
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finally reached to the point, it was like June or
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June or July where we got the phone call that hey,
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actually I'm gonna I'm gonna was my my home.
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Right so he'd owned his home outright, but the you.
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Know, the the land fees and the homeowners association things
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like that had gotten to the point where that wasn't
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being paid for multiple months on months, months on end,
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where the terms of his you know, the community that
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he lived in dictated that his house was going to
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go up for auction if he didn't set up those things.
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And so.
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When we got that phone call, we've sort of been
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aware and having those conversations that you know, we we
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knew it was, you know, uh absolutely, I'm not gonna
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you know, send you a check. I'm not gonna wire
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you because I I don't know where it's going to go.
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So we we got car, drove and went there in
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person who you know, physically I you know, we physically
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hand delivered it to the you know, the correct agency
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right that was, you know, that was responsible for the thing,
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because we because at that point then you know, I'm
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a very much uh you know, trust but verify, but
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still not trust anyone, right, and so yeah, exactly, And
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so we've gone through the paperwork and talked to the
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the company that operated the community there, and so went
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went in person and paid it. And then that's where
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we spent spent a few days and really learned the
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extent of of what had been going on and really
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tried to work with you know, a path forward of
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setting the budget, ending the communications. And I thought we
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were in a good place. And then the second that
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we left, you know, it was back to a store
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to pick up a gift card. And at that point
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we had you know, set up a power of attorney
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and gotten to the point where we uh got on
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access to the bank account and those kind of things,