When God Restores what the Locusts have Eaten

To watch on YouTube

In today's episode we hear from four of us who have experienced scams.

We talk about how to avoid them and what red flags to pay attention to.

We also see how God can restore what the locusts have eaten.

From the day we’re born, we begin a journey. It will be molded by our families, our environments, our beliefs, and motivations. 

God, as the alpha and omega is with us each step of the way, whether we follow him or not. 

Just as we have our own personal journeys, each character in the Bible has theirs. Each have had their own lessons to learn. 

And higher than that, God has used each one in his ultimate plan. 

Discovering your Journey– finding God i

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Transcript

Jan: Welcome to Just Talking About Jesus. I'm Jan Johnson, a seasoned believer who loves relationships and, you know, just talking about Jesus.

Hey, everybody. Welcome to episode 52 of Just Talking About Jesus.

Last week we heard from Kenesha Johnson sharing the strength of her faith in God and the fulfillment of his promises.

My guests today, guests plural,

are my son Kyle, Ray, my brother Dale, and sister in law Kay.

So you get that phone call that says you didn't show up for federal jury. You don't remember being called for that, but then again, you're sometimes forgetful or a pop up appears on your screen that says your Microsoft isn't paid up and you owe $599 to reinstall it.

Really?

I don't think it was that much. And besides, I thought I already paid it.

Or you answer the phone and it sounds kind of like your grandchild who says they're in trouble and need you to send money to get them out.

You suppose it's possible one grandchild has been in trouble before?

Today we're talking about scams. It's happened to more people than you know. And I think it's important to talk about because when you get caught up into one, it can be embarrassing, humiliating, and just completely awful.

So let's dig in. I think you'll have some good takeaways. And while you're listening, be in tune with what you think were red flags.

He said that I had authorized the charge and that they couldn't cancel my credit card. Because I'm saying, why don't you just cancel a credit card? You know? Because he said, well, you've authorized a charge, so you can't do it.

I'm thinking, that doesn't sound right, you know. So then I get onto my phone and look up on my credit card there. There's no evidence of any amount of money that's been charged to some gaming, something that I didn't recognize.

And he says, no, somebody called you at 6:15 in the morning and that I had authorized it. And so I'm saying, and that he had listened to the recording and.

And I'm thinking,

how could that be?

Welcome to Just Talking About Jesus. This is my son, Kyle Rea,

who is joining me today to talk about scams. Because having been scammed in a major way this year, I thought we need to have an episode about that just for people to know some things, get some information and be able to protect themselves.

And if it happens to you, to know that you've been a victim, but you don't have to feel shame as I did when it happened.

So welcome, Kyle.

Kyle: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Jan: Actually, I invited Kyle on today because I didn't want him to feel jealous that his sister had been on the podcast twice now and he'd never been invited.

Kyle: Yet I got to come on the scams one. This is amazing.

Jan: Something that we're both interested in, both have dealt with. Okay, so first of all, I will be including some recordings that I did with my sister-in-law, Kay and my brother Dale from a couple of scams that they had been involved in as well.

But what happened to me was in July,

I had a couple of deadlines coming up and one of them was needing to do an event online program that I was not able to access. I'd always been able to access it, but I couldn't access it on my computer.

I couldn't access Alitu, which is my podcasting editing program.

I could get into emails, I could get into Facebook, but there was just all the important things that I really needed to get into I couldn't do. So I talked to some people and tried to figure out exactly what was going on.

Somebody said, well, you know, maybe do you have Norton? Maybe that's what it is, you know? And so I thought, well, okay, maybe I'll just remove it. So I tried to uninstall it, and when I got onto the Norton site and tried to follow the directions, it was just like it was really convoluted,

so I couldn't get through with it. And so then I was talking to somebody else and telling her the issue that I'd had and she said, oh, I had that problem too.

So I called Apple and they just helped me uninstall it. I thought, okay, good, good. Meanwhile, to start the day, I had been super stressed because I'd been in a fight with my husband and that had kind of put me off guard for things as well.

So. But which is also an important piece of the equation.

So I call Apple, I try to do it, they're very helpful and whatever. And then I push on install and I said, oh, good, this is going to work. And then I hung up.

And then it froze on me.

So now I'm getting more frustrated because everything I'm trying to do is not working.

So I thought, okay, fine, I'm going to call Norton directly and their service and have them help me uninstall it. So I get onto Google and I find the number which pops up right at the top for support, and I call that number and they are just so helpful.

But you don't need to uninstall Norton. That's not going to help you to do this. And I'm going,

well, I kind of can do what I want to do. Why are you going to limit me to what I can do? I mean, I am the, the purchaser or you know,

so,

so this guy is not a native English speaker.

So he puts me in a hold and then he comes back and he says, well, I talked to the FDIC and they then looked at, at my IP address and there had been a hack from China for charges for gaming.

Did that sound familiar to me and did I know anything about that? And I'm going, okay, obviously you don't know me very well, but that might have been for you, Kyle, but not for me maybe,

and had I gained and whatever. And then he asked where I banked. So I told him and he says well, do you want me to call your bank for you?

And I'm going,

why would I want to do that? And he says, well, because now since your computer is infected,

that your phone would be at risk. And so you'd want to have a designated line that he could call on. All these little things that I should have known about.

But I was so confused about everything and what was going on. So he asked if I, if he could call a secure line to my bank. I, he gave me his name and his badge number.

You know, enough things that make it sound like it's a legit, possibly legit is going on.

So he calls the number for my bank. They answer and I'm thinking great. And finally my, my computer is going to work. We're going to have to fix that, whatever.

So he gets onto my bank and it sounded legit.

He said that I had authorized the charge and that they couldn't cancel my credit card. Because I'm saying, why don't you just cancel a credit card? You know, because he said, well, you've authorized a charge so you can't do it.

I'm thinking that doesn't sound right, you know, so then I get onto my phone and look up on my credit card there. There's no evidence of any amount of money that's been charged to some gaming something that I didn't recognize.

And he says no, somebody called you at 6:15 in the morning and that I had authorized it. And so I'm saying, and that he had listened to the recording and I'm thinking well, how could that be?

But Kyle had told me about AI being able to Match your voice for things to say yes.

Right.

Kyle: Bad news, Very bad.

Jan: So then I'm thinking, well, it's possible. Is it? I guess it's possible that that could have been somehow. Right.

So then do you have a credit card that's starting with a 9 or 6 or 4 or okay. All of these things that I should have just gone, what the heck.

But I just kept feeling so confused and I'm thinking, but Norton is a credible organization. My bank is credible. Why I. It was just all of these kind of things.

Anyway,

so he kept saying to me though, in between he keeps saying, now don't worry, we're going to take care of you, everything's going to be fine, we're going to get this all fixed and, and whatever.

Just reassuring me that everything was going to be great.

So,

so he puts me on hold and he's checking with someone else and it comes back on and that it was a $2,500 charge that needed to be taken care of.

And the way I was going to take care of that was to buy five $500 gift cards for Apple.

The thing that is just astounded me is that in this whole thing, I mean this isn't anything I would do. None of this is, it is, it's just like I couldn't.

When it was all done and over, I still, I couldn't even believe that I'd done it yet because it was just so.

It was almost like I was in a fog, you know, like I was been hypnotized or something. You know, now you're going to do this, now you're going to do this.

So he's saying, I'm saying why do I want to buy gift cards? How is that going to take care of a credit card charge?

And, and he's saying, well, because you're going to buy them and then tomorrow morning the policeman is going to come to your house and they're going to take care of the rest.

I'm thinking none of that makes sense to me. How's like a real policeman is going to come. Yeah, that's how that's going to work and you know, they're going to take care of them.

There's so many things about it just that did not make sense. And yet I'm thinking,

well how is this okay?

And he keeps assuring me no, this is what's supposed to happen.

So I said, well it's going to take me a half hour to get to town to be able to buy any gift cards because no place Close by me. Oh, that's okay.

Just stay on the phone, though. Stay on the phone the whole time.

And so I go to Safeway. I can only buy one gift card there because they're used to watching out for scams. The clerk leans over and I've got my phone on.

I set it on the little counter there. And she leans into me and she says, are you being coerced to buy cards? And I said,

no, because I'm thinking in my mind, coerced. Nobody's, you know,

got me on an arm lock to say.

To say, you have to do this. They're not saying that. They're just telling me to buy them. I'm not, you know, if she had said something that was like. Like, is someone asking you to buy credit cards to some kind of gift card in order to pay off something?

That would have triggered me, you know, but that wasn't what she said, you know, that verbiage just didn't. Didn't hit me, I think. I don't know.

And I'm feeling like. Well, that's what he told me. He said if somebody asks you what you're buying them for, then tell them that it's for a family member. Yeah.

Which is right there.

Trigger red flag number 16.

So I go to Fred Meyers. I go in there and I think, okay, I'm just going to go to the self checkout. So nobody says anything. And I'm just feeling slimy about it.

It's just this feeling like, really, like I need to do this fast. And I. Because he puts a deadline. Well, you've only got five hours to make this happen. You know, you've got to get all this done within a certain amount of time, you know,

and even that, it's just like, okay, okay. Yeah, okay. And when you get out to the car,

let me know when you're back out to the car. I get out the car, okay, take out the gift card, turn it over, scratch off the back and read me the numbers,

which I do.

And then I go to Freddy's and I buy two more.

And then I go all the way to Seaside.

First I go to Walmart and they don't have any. And then I go all the way to Seaside. So now I'm an hour away from home. And he says, how are you doing?

Have you had something to eat? Have you been able to take a break? Or you. Are you doing okay? Just to make sure you're doing okay. And he's just chatting up about just different things and here and There and, you know, whatever.

Just like, he's your best friend, like, because he's basically kidnapped me.

And the whole time I'm thinking, okay, this isn't going to be over until tomorrow morning when a policeman comes to my house to make things right.

So meanwhile,

all night, I'm just doing about this. I'm just like. And it still hasn't hit me that it's a scam, even to this. After I've just given them $2500.

Oh, my gosh.

So in the morning,

I talk to my husband. I say, okay, sit down, because I need to tell you something, and I don't want you to say anything until I'm through telling you everything that happened.

So I tell him what happened, and he says, call the sheriff.

And so I did. And the first thing he says is, it's a scam. And then all of a sudden, click. It was like, it's a scam. It was just like.

It was like.

It was crazy how that whole thing. And then I felt just incredible shame that I had been sucked into doing this. And just the. Why.

I mean, I don't do things like that. I'm a rational person. I don't do things like that. And I just. I was so embarrassed. And I. I mean, all I wanted to do was cry.

Did not. I mean, it was a lot of money to lose,

but I.

I knew that, you know, God's my provider. He's going to figure out, you know, how to. How to return it and. Which he actually did.

But it. It just says. It was just. It was horrible. It was almost like being raped. You know, I felt like. And then I was like, I feel like somebody can always hear me, can listen to me, to know, you know, there's somebody out there that's going to be,

you know, doing something again.

Kay: Because it's.

Jan: It's almost like, I guess if your house was broken into or something, was that kind of a thing. So, Kyle, you've been scammed, as you were saying?

Kyle: Tori, I pulled up five different experiences straight in my head. Right away I'm like, oh,

well, here's a way you could get scammed. Well, first to touch on your story.

First key rule of not being scammed is if it seems too good to be true, it usually isn't. But that's a pretty general quote. Like, sometimes there is good deals out there.

And, you know, but this was that.

Jan: I didn't feel like this isn't really.

Kyle: Like a deal type of.

Jan: It wasn't like that. Yeah, it wasn't like that type of thing.

Kyle: This is more like while living in the big city for so long, it's. You come in here naive, from a small town where everybody kind of trusts each other. And then people read that energy,

and then you're like an easy target. So, you know, in the first three, four years of a big city, you just get scammed left and right and left and right until it's like, oh, wow.

My defense mechanism needs to now be, I can't trust anybody. If you trust nine out of ten people, and every tenth randomly out of every ten, one person scams you, your body's gonna start shifting to, I can't trust anybody anymore.

And so you start closing up. You can't be open or whatever.

So, like, over getting scammed a bunch of times every which way you could possibly think of. I could go through a couple scenarios.

Jan: Of like, hey, wait a minute. I bet nobody's called and said, uncle Kyle, can you help get me out of this situation?

Kyle: Oh, yeah, that's a. That's a whole different scam in itself. People saying, hey, I need you to bail me out. But they're not actually in jail.

Jan: Yeah, well, that was Aunt K's, so we'll hear about Aunt K's.

Kyle: There's scams all over. Okay, let's just start with one that happened to me, like a couple years ago.

Trusting someone who had a. I like to help people in marketing and build businesses. So someone who I thought if I helped them out, could help me out with some fashion had a struggling fashion business, and their problem was the.

The person who I was replacing was their ex boyfriend who ran their whole business. I saw that this person had a really good quality of clothing. I was like, okay, well, I see they're hurting.

If I can. They already got every. All the resources we need. If we just did this, this, and this, we could turn this back into a successful business. I helped them.

They helped me. Okay, great.

So after talking for months and months, they're like, okay, well, I need my Shopify turned back on, my Etsy turned back on. All of them are late on bills, and then I need enough money to pay my bills so that I don't get kicked out of a foreign country because my visa's expired and I can't even eat.

I'm like, what are you eating? Oh, we just got rice and water and my apartment manager is paying for. I'm like, let me take care of that for you so that you can focus.

And we need to do this with you.

Jan: Was this one that you were going to be the hero.

Kyle: I was going to be the hero. I'm like, I don't even care to be a hero. I'm just like, look, if I can help this person, I'm going to get some good karma points and we could build a business together.

I've been hunting for years to work with somebody, and every time I try to work with somebody, it's like they don't pull through or like they pull one on me.

And I'm like, all right. So after a while, like, you start to learn anyway. So the whole thing was okay.

So I paid all the bills, turned back on the shopify,

let em use Canva to build like a lookbooks. Help. Help show them all the marketing ways to quickly sell items through Facebook groups.

We made a deal where it's. You get this much percentage based off everything I sell. They went and they sold a bunch of stuff. I didn't see anything. I was like, okay, so that got you caught up in bills.

So now let me. Kyle, I. I need. I need like $2,000 so that I can go buy all this materials and ship it out. Cause I get. I'm behind bills on the US the.

The shipping company because of Vietnam, they do things different than UPS or usps where you pay as you go, and if you don't pay, you don't get anything there. It's like, I guess they make a deal.

Jan: At least that's what she told you.

Kyle: At least that's what I was told. Anyway, so I gave her $2,000 on a credit card and I' to get this money back asap because I got an interest rate on there.

I don't have money to spend, but I know that we could. I'm seeing what you've done. I looked at your numbers from before. I know that we got possibilities there.

Give them the money. We do a pre sell. Sell, like $4,000 worth of items. They all pay the money straight to my PayPal. I give her the money because she needs it to fulfill orders, and then I don't get anything back.

Jan: And then she's like, credit card now.

Kyle: My credit card where I have to pay it back. And she's like, this isn't going to work out anymore. You. You said this and you did that. I'm like, what are you even talking about?

Oh, you're lying about this person. That person I can't be around. People are lying. I'm like, what are you even talking about? And she made up a lie that had nothing to do with anything and then blocked me.

And I'm like, you got to pay me back where it's going to be. I'm going to talk to.

I got to get my money back some way. So like, I got her Shopify closed out, her Etsy closed out. I still didn't get my money back. Then within three to five months, all of these return orders of saying, we never got our item, we need our money back.

So not only do I have to pay back the people who paid the Shopify or the PayPal which all the money I gave her, but now I've got late fees, reversal fees because they never got the fulfilled item.

How could all this have been avoided if I sent as. Cause I sent her money through PayPal friends and family to maximize her dollar. If I would have just sent it as PayPal business and took the fee, I could reverse it all and I got everything back.

So the learning is, number one,

you gotta try to meet people if you're gonna do business and you gotta have some sort of trust equity. The second thing is, if you're gonna use PayPal and you're doing anything with business other than sending money to your friends and family, just pay the 3% fee.

Otherwise it could end up costing you thousands, which it took me almost half a year to get caught back up just from that alone. So that's one scam. That's just one out of the many.

That one hurt. That one hurt. Cause like, I was already trying to take care of my own business and other things,

my own bills, and then adding that on top of it just compounds the. Now I have to get out of two situations and they're gonna send me to collections and it's gonna affect my credit, which was already trying to build the credit score up.

And now this is really affecting my credit. So it's like you can compound backwards just by trying to be a good Samaritan. If you just keep. If you just trust your gut from the beginning, the gut's usually right.

So it's like there's always gonna be an opportunity. Everything in the world is pretty much bought and sold. So if this one doesn't work out, don't worry, don't be impulsive, just move on to the next thing.

Say, okay, I'll just take the small loss rather than the big everything loss and just be like, okay, it's not working out. Put the foot down and move on. Like, that's one way to deal with that situation.

Jan: Even when you said that trust in your gut when I left Freddy's.

I. I just felt like this is just. Something is wrong. Something is just really wrong here with this thing. And I. I thought I should just call the sheriff just to double check, you know, if they're going to be the ones coming to the house, I should be calling them,

Right? But did I do it? No, because this guy had this pull on me somehow, you know, and so I. And I even said I need. I'm not feeling right about this.

I. I really. You need to reassure me that this is right.

Kay: Oh.

Jan: Oh, don't worry about a thing. We've got you. We're going to make all this right. Everything's just going to be, you know, hunky dory. Even though I knew at that point where I wasn't feeling, it was just like,

yeah,

listening to your gut and just seeing anything that doesn't seem right. You know, when I look back to it, the things that kept me going was, Norton's a legit company.

My bank is a legit company. You know, why?

But there were enough things that make you feel like words like police. Okay, well, you trust the police, don't you? You know, that should be right.

They're just all the kind of things that. Enough things that made you feel,

oh, we called the fdic. You know, they're. Well, okay, then that should be something they should know. He gave me a badge number. I don't know, just enough things that made you feel like it was a.

Kyle: Legit thing with AI nowadays, too, they can. They can ask, AI, how do I make a business model? Say steps 1, 2, 3. And the only twist is the kind of BSing their whole way through it.

But now they have a whole sales document formula that they can go off of, and then they're just playing off the emotion of. Of whatever. The person is constantly feeding you new stories.

But here's the thing. When someone lies about something, if it's not rehearsed over and over and over, this seems like you went through a very rehearsed scenario. But if it's not rehearsed, you.

You constantly repeat what they just told you and try to see if they're giving you the exact same story. Or if they said this, like 20 minutes ago and you come right back to that again and they forget what they said, you're gonna find a hole in what they're saying.

And then it's like, oh, okay. So I say, like, one of the things, how to avoid what you went through, probably the first thing. Like, I get spam calls all the time, and the national do not call registry really doesn't do anything.

So I've done, I do it every year and like it cuts off a few of them, but no, I don't know, constantly. Now all of these data breaches, how you keep on getting these emails or texts, this got data breach change, change your password asap.

I've already gotten four of those and it's only the first month. Just got through the first month. I've already got four messages saying, hey, data breach this, data breach that.

I'm like, okay, so when they're data breaching, they're selling your data to third parties, they're making money off the data and then all of a sudden that's why your spam calls and your spam emails.

So first thing I do when I answer a call and I don't know who it is, is I don't give them my name. I just say, hello, how can I help you?

And then if it takes three seconds for Em to reply, usually I just hang up.

I'm not even gonna play the game. Just like, okay, if you're calling me out of intention, you'd be there ready to respond within three seconds. Okay? No, click. If they make it three seconds and they say, oh, is Kyle Ria there?

I'm like,

who's asking? I don't confirm or deny who's asking. Make them give me all the details about who they are and what they're selling or whatever. Because sometimes solar energy or whatever, I don't want anything.

And it's like, I don't need to be sold anything. I'm a very independent person and if I want something, I'm going to go, I'm resourceful, I'll go figure out how to get it.

I don't need anybody to randomly sell me anything. Even if it's a once in a lifetime deal. The, the city is giving out free energy panels or something. No, they're not.

You're like, you're using some sort of false system. Like someone came last year to sell us energy panels.

They're like, we'll give you a free free tank, hot, hot water tank. It's more efficient. It's a 30 year deal and it's going to save you this much money over time.

I'm like, yeah, but we have to pay you for 30 years. What if we don't even want the house in five years? Well, then it moves to the next person I' like, okay, so that makes it harder to sell the house.

And it's like, yeah, but you have to get solar panels and the water heater to make it efficient. I'm like, I don't need. No, I didn't ask for any of this in the first place.

So, like, no, I'm good. This good thing would be. Okay, so it sounds legit on the phone and you've confirmed. Yes. Okay. This is Kyle, who's.

Because you've already accepted that what they're selling you seems legit. Okay, let me hear you out. And they just go on and on and on. If they don't ask you questions or it sounds like a generic question, you don't care about me.

You're just trying to make a conversion. I can't stand salespeople. Like, if I'm going to get sold something, it's because I asked you to sell me something, not because you're gonna spam.

Call me to sell me something. So I just say something like that. Just get off the phone asap, Just not interested. Click and they won't call back. And if they.

If you don't like the phone number, block it immediately so they don't have a chance to get back at you again. That's what I do. Like, while we've had this conversation, I literally just got a spam call on my phone.

Literally, we're having this conversation.

The third thing I want to say is, like you said, Norton, I use Mac. I've never noticed Norton was on Mac, only on a PC. So that to me is a red flag.

But if you're not a techie, you probably wouldn't know that. So if you're getting emails,

the biggest thing to do if it seems legit, like Facebook, hey, if you don't do this within three days, we're going to ban your Facebook. I've gotten that a lot of times.

I got a Best Buy, a Home Depot, all these things saying, hey, you got to do this asap. The first thing I do is check who the sender is or if I can't see the email, I'll hit reply and see who it replies to.

If it's not an official home depot.com, which is their official email, than is B.S. it might say George Santos,

mail.com, but it says Home Depot in, you know, the base of the email. And it looks legit. Like your first thing is like, it's not from the official email. Don't touch it.

That's what I do immediately.

Those two ways to avoid potentially being in a situation that you're. Yeah.

Jan: And I think here's some of the typical tactics Are only so many can people can get this. You know, you're qualified. You're one of the few that's qualified or you're lucky.

Or don't miss out on this fantastic opportunity.

It's guaranteed.

There's a timeframe. Usually the urgency, just like they did with me, you know, or a fear tactic of something's gonna happen if you don't, you know, or even a threat of something.

Or I can help you solve this problem.

Kyle: No, Art of War is a book about military tactics which they also use in marketing. These are people without any ethics at all.

So they will you. They'll learn everything. White hat. White hat is ethical marketing. Black hat is unethical marketing like spam emailing, which is illegal these days. That's why on all websites it has cookies down below.

So a cookie is essentially saving your data. And a lot of people were taking that data and then selling it to third parties and then you're getting random emails. That's now federally illegal.

Well, who knows anymore? But yeah, so things like that. Phishing also. Phishing is where you click on a link and it gives them full access to all the data in your computer.

Especially if you have to log in, it's going to pull your passwords. I mean, I'm not trying to make you paranoid or anything, but like there's a new scam every year, every month.

You just got to have your defense up when it comes to anything technology related, to be honest.

Jan: Yeah. Well, another thing that, you know, after all this was done, just the whole idea that they say don't hang up, don't hang up. Because had I hung up as soon as I did hang up, I had 15 notices from my bank saying this looks like a scam.

Are you sure this isn't a scam? You bought another gift card. Are you sure this isn't a scam? If I'd have hung up, I would have seen those and the end of story would have been there.

But when they've got you tied up to your phone and you're not calling anybody in between, if you hang up, you might lose your help that you're going to get.

And so like if I'd have hung up to call my husband or call somebody, Kyle, who's knowledgeable,

anybody in between, you know, then that wouldn't. Then that would have dropped there right there. You know, so that. And they sound professional, you know, enough false promises or prizes of rewards and then they never come through.

Right.

Kyle: Two things that I was going to say based off of what you were just mentioning one tactic. Like, not everybody wants to do this. Well, not everybody can. But if you're going to make any payments,

make it through a credit card, because you can always do fraud protection through your credit card. Like, they'll always protect you. I've already used it four times last year. That's how I got out some of those Shopify Money and Etsy Money.

Back from that one scammer is because I did it through a credit card. If I did it through my debit card, they'd be like, you're out of luck, buddy.

Jan: Yeah.

Kyle: Second. Second thing is that anybody mentions getting any gift cards over a phone, never, ever, ever do it. Because gift cards can't be tracked. Or if they say crypto, once you send crypto, you can't do it.

If you send a Zelle, it's very, very, very difficult to get the money back. You can if you have a lot of proof, but if you have no proof and it's on a phone conversation that was not recorded, good luck.

Yeah, don't. Don't send Zells, don't send Venmos, don't send cash apps, don't send PayPal.

The only way to really get through it is by doing it through business. You'd have to send it through business. If they say, send friends and family, like selling comic books and sports cards through Facebook,

I can't do it because my PayPal account doesn't accept business. Yes, it does. If it doesn't, I'm not sending you anything. Oh, I'll send you this if you send it as friends and family, because I don't want to accept the fee, I'll do it for a little more, a little less.

Or if they say, I'll send you a cashier's check.

Jan: So, Kyle, we've talked about this before, where sometimes somebody might call and they might be asking you certain questions, and they're really trying to. They're asking you specific questions that have a yes or a no answer to them.

Talk about that a little bit.

Kyle: So when I moved to LA,

2005, I think it was probably like 2007. This was way before AI. I just remember being on my lunch break and someone calling me and telling me, hey, you have all this debt.

We're taking you to court. We're. And then all these other different things that were, like, had something to do with my Social Security number and all this credit that I had built up with credit cards I never applied for, and something to do with my, like, id and I'm like,

wait, what's going on here? They're like,

yeah, you owe us, like, $15,000 for whatever reason. I'm like, wait, what's going on here? They're like,

so this person over here, this company, said that you owe them this. And so we had to do a whole back check because I had to cancel everything from my driver's license to all my bank accounts to my.

Any credit cards I had to.

Any other private details to all of my online accounts with. With passwords. I had to change everything.

Jan: So, Kay, you got scammed. Tell me about that.

Kay: Well, we were sitting, watching some TV in the evening, and I got a phone call,

and it sounded like this.

Graham, I've been in a car accident, and I'm in jail here in Phoenix, and I need help. They're going to arrest me, and I'm. I need bail money,

and I only have to come up with $3,500, and I can't do it. But don't call mom and tell her that's what it sounded like.

And it really sucked me in because my grandchildren actually call me Graham. They do not call me grandma. They call me Graham.

And I have a grandson named Daniel who has been in and out of jail with problems with drugs. Praise God. He's went through an extreme rehab situation and is now one of the counselors.

And so there's redemption and all that. But I bought it, or was buying it because of the background and how they knew that I had a grandson named Daniel and called Dan, and how he called me Graham, I have no idea.

Still have no idea.

So I guess somehow I had the wits to put it on speaker, and my husband was there and started listening with me, and he wanted me to call his lawyer and arrange to have the money transferred to this lawyer.

Yeah, the man, the fake grandson,

wanted me to call his lawyer and give him the money to take care of this.

And we just kind of. It just didn't feel right. It was so odd, and yet there was so many facts that were kind of not adding up. And a conversation went on for quite a while, and he was so desperate, and he was injured and on and on, right?

So he wanted me to call the lawyer and give the lawyer this money, which I understand now is unusual because they just keep you on the phone.

So we hung up,

and instead of calling his lawyer, I called my daughter,

and I said, carrie, call Daniel. I just talked to him a few days ago. He was in Florida. He says he's in Phoenix and has an accident. I didn't tell her the details.

She called him. No, he was just fine. He was in Florida. So young man called back, or sounded like a younger man.

And I don't remember exactly how it wound up in the end, but we obviously refused to give the money because we knew it was a scam by then. But it was within an inch of falling for this scam because too many facts fit.

If he had said grandmother,

if he had said a different name, this is your grandson. But he said Dan.

And you don't know how they get this information.

You don't. And because Dale was there and listening, we were able to call my daughter and start getting some facts before we got suckered in any farther, which we had pretty much decided, even if it was Daniel, we weren't going to give him the money because he'd had too many scrapes with the law and it was time to pay the piper.

But the vulnerability of it just shook me because I was really beginning to believe that this was my grandson.

Anyway, we narrowly escaped that one. My husband, thank God,

was there,

and we had one other incident, and I'm going to let my husband tell you about that one.

Jan: So what happened with that one?

Dale: We went to a trade show.

It was a business opportunity trade show. And I was in a position with my job where I was dissatisfied and wanted to look for new opportunities.

And there was opportunity presented where you could have. This was before cell phones were everywhere, and it was a mobile phone with a printer on it. And so it was a.

In. In essence, it was a portable payphone that you could generate revenue from because you got so many.

So much return on the minutes that they used the phone. So you were charging them, I don't know, a dollar a minute, for example, and you got half of that or something.

I don't know what the numbers are now, but. And they. They guaranteed you a territory,

and so you had your own territory.

Kay: You could put them in hotels and businesses.

Dale: Restaurants were one. So they could ask the waitress, for example, for. For the portable payphone, and they would use it at their table or whatever, make. Make long distance calls. And then you shared the revenue.

So. But it was.

Jan: Was this a native English speaker?

Kay: Oh, yeah. It was slick businessmen, very slick business.

Dale: Right. And they gave. They gave all kinds of.

Kay: Only so many people were going to be allowed to buy these.

Dale: Right.

Kay: And they were really special if you got.

Dale: And the profit potential based on how many phone system bought. So if you bought 10 phone systems, you were virtually guaranteed all this income.

Jan: Right. It sounded so good.

Dale: And they kept us waiting and waiting.

Kay: And waiting, interviewed us and then kept us waiting again because they had other people. But we were on the list here.

Dale: But they kept us for hours and hours just to get us through the interview process to qualify us for this grand opportunity.

Kay: Yeah. And this time, which was many years prior to this, the second incident with the grandson, we fell for it.

Jan: But it's like a vacation, right? A vacation condo and then you wait around to be qualified.

Dale: Exactly right.

Kay: So in the end you, you made the sound payment, but you never got any phones.

Dale: No, I did, I did get a phone, I got the phones, but there was no, there was no help in getting customer, a customer base. And so I actually went, Promise, I went door to door to restaurants, to hotels.

I went, I spent weeks going to different businesses to try to place these, these phones. But nobody wanted them.

Jan: Nobody wanted.

Dale: And it wasn't, it wasn't maybe a year later that everyone had cell phones.

Kay: Yeah, a couple of years later, cell phones started. I mean they, they were big and bulky and, and,

but still, but at least they had, you know, a few people. The wealthy or the businessmen that were traveling had them and they, they were these big portfolio looking things.

But. Yeah.

Jan: And how much were you off?

Dale: $30,000.

Kay: It's hard to earn.

Jan: So, so if you, now if you're thinking back, what were the, what were your clues? Thinking back on it,

you could have stopped that at some point had you really been rational. Yes, I will.

Dale: And just there was opportunity for us to get up and leave, but we were seeing, we were looking at the dollar signs and the potential and missing out on this fantastic opportunity.

Getting in on the ground floor of a fantastic opportunity.

Kay: Yeah.

Jan: And we only had so many people.

Kay: And we're going to make this decision.

And so we were waiting and going in and out of the abuse to, to be able to make it. And at one point I really did, in my spirit. I just felt this,

you know, it's like, it was like watching a play and these businessmen, real slick, expensive suits and, and you know, men with gorndous hair. Right. And I mean, all I can remember is they were slick.

And, and I had that feeling. I was watching this play and these really strange people and I knew how much my husband wanted out of what he was doing because it wasn't a good situation.

So your dad's put his side and I knew he was. And it was like, oh, come on. You know, you just feel like I'm the one being ridiculous here and overreacting.

And so I Just shut up. And I went 100% along with it. You know, it was like, set that aside,

you're being melodramatic and get with the program.

Jan: At what point did you decide, did you really figure out you'd been scammed.

Kay: After you kept trying to put it somewhere?

Dale: Yeah, basically.

Kay: And they would never help. They would never come through with the rest of the contract, only deliver the phones, but not going to do.

Dale: And in the end, I mean, basically, you're talking about a portable phone handset with a printer. That was it. That was probably worth $50 tops.

Kay: Yeah. And you have. Again, you have to understand, this was way before cell phones.

And the only thing I can. What did you call those big units you carried in the car?

Dale: It was a bag phone.

Kay: Bag phone of some kind. A meson antique now, but it was before that. So that gives you an idea. So we really. I mean, my husband is very technological and so there was an appeal there.

Dale: Cutting edge.

Kay: Cutting edge.

Jan: I'm going to help you out of your problem.

Kay: Oh, they are.

Jan: I'm going to help you out of this situation. I'm going to make life better for you.

Kay: Yes.

Jan: This is how I can help you. Don't worry. I've got you.

Kay: We've got. We've got you covered. We've got the clients for you, you know, for you to get started.

This is how you do it. We're there. We're back up.

Dale: Nothing and so and so is already established in Atlanta and they're making. And they showed their multimillion dollar headquarters in South Carolina and.

Jan: Yeah.

Kay: Which was probably somebody else's. We were pretty young and pretty stupid then.

Jan: But I'm old and I thought I was pretty savvy, too.

Okay, friends, so here's to wrap up. I've got a few trips.

Legit organizations won't call, email or text to ask for your personal info like Social Security, bank accounts, or credit card numbers.

Even if you get an email or a text message that you think is real,

don't click on any links. Contact the sender using a website you know is trustworthy, or look up the number on an official website. If it says sponsored, it may not be the real deal.

Don't call a number they give you in a voicemail or the number from your caller id.

Scammers try to reel victims in with a problem or a prize. They may say you're in trouble with a government agency or you owe money or that someone in your family had an emergency and they need you to verify some information.

Like what Kay got caught up into.

They might say that you've won money in a lottery or sweepstakes, but you have to pay a fee to get it. They will lightly pressure you to act immediately, telling you not to hang up so you can't check out their story.

They may threaten to arrest you, sue you, take away your driver's license, or say your computer is about to be corrupted.

And with that one in mind, that's like the one I got caught in where he said, don't hang up, don't hang up. I don't want to lose you. I want to be able to help you figure this out.

If I had hung up immediately or at any time along the line, I would have seen all of these text messages from my bank telling me, are you sure that you're not caught in a scam because you're buying all of these,

all of these gift cards.

So if they've got you on the phone, you can't check anything and that's their whole deal. So don't get caught like that. Scammers tell you to pay in a specific way.

They may insist that you pay by sending money through a money transfer company or by putting money on a gift card and then giving them the number on the back, just like yours truly.

Never pay someone who insists you pay with a gift card or by using a money transfer service. Never deposit a check and send money back to someone. If you are scammed or you think you recognize a scam, report it to the Federal Trade Commission.

There's a good website, and they'll walk you through how to report it. And here's one. My daughter Sydney got caught with a computer scan alert. You get a pop up on your computer that looks like it might be from your operating system or an antivirus software saying, suspicious activity has been detected.

And to call a live technician now. Do not call that phone number.

Real security warnings will never ask you to call a phone number. Do not click on any links in the pop up or browser window.

Okay, that's enough for now. And if this happens to you, tell somebody. Do not feel shame. I felt so awful. I was just. Didn't want to tell anything what happened.

I was mortified. But the more we tell, the more others are likely to avoid a scam. And that's what we want, right?

So my scammers stole $2,500 from me. I wasn't worried so much about the money. Yes, it is a lot, I know. But I also know that everything I own is God's.

And sure enough, A week later, I had an unexpected windfall from an investment that totaled get ready for this $25,000.

That's right.

God restored tenfold.

You can bet that put a smile on my face.

Isn't he so good and has a sense of humor?

Feel free to share this episode with those you think could use this information. I'm sure you can think of someone and I would urge you, if you've been scammed, to share that with others.

Let everyone know what to watch out for. Scams don't just hit old people.

Scammers are very calculating in what they say and how they connect with you.

Next week we'll hear from Heather Bradley, who lost her son and talks about taking the hand of Jesus through pain and suffering into a life of freedom and purpose.

And I'll leave you with these relevant Scriptures. Job 1:21 the Lord gives and the Lord takes away.

Deuteronomy 10, 14, 17 Everything belongs to the LORD your God. The heavens, even the highest heavens belong to him. The earth and everything on it belongs to him.

And Joel 2:25 I will restore what the swarming locust has eaten.

All right, so thanks so much and I've got some new subscribers if you're one of them. Thank you so much for subscribing to my newsletter and some new subscribers on YouTube.

And if you haven't yet, you might consider doing that because then you get to know right when the episodes come out.

So I will see you next time and I hope you have a wonderful week.