Owensboro resident Jane Head is a large fan of NBC’s “Today” show. One morning, she posted a message on journalist Jacob Soboroff’s Facebook page encouraging him on his great reporting. She received a message back but later learned it wasn’t from Soboroff.
Head said that about two weeks later, she was elated when she received the message from the supposed journalist. They chatted briefly and were ultimately asked to download the Whatsapp and Telegram apps.
“I blindly plodded in. Days went by, and the conversations seemed normal. Feeling confident, I asked questions I knew the answers to, but they often went unanswered,” she said.
When the questions were avoided, she said she often wondered if Soboroff had forgotten the answers, and she began to “rationalize the red flags” that came along the way.
After some time passed, she said the day came when they asked if she could pick up a gift card.
“Thinking I was helping my newfound friend, I agreed,” Head recalled. Eventually, the requests turned into cash requests as she began to be “manipulated” by the scammer.
If she didn’t comply, Head said the scammer became defensive, upset and accusatory, and not wanting to lose her new friend, she gave in.
It wasn’t until a concerned family member learned she thought she could be scamming. NBC was immediately contacted, and a correspondent confirmed that Head was being scammed.
“They were quick to defend the Soboroff and assure us that he was an upstanding person of integrity and would never be chatting on an app. I was devastated,” Head said.
From there, NBC contacted the FBI and the Better Business Bureau about the scam, and now, Head wishes for others to remain cautious when contacting others on social media.
“These low lives are very manipulative,” Head said. “… I feel that I am here at this point to share my story and be a lighthouse to other people of a certain age that are looking for a chance at happiness.
The International Crime Complaint Center with the FBI reports that Head is not the only person being scammed out of large amounts of money. They report that older individuals are targeted continuously throughout the nation, and scams have gotten $3.1 billion from over 88,000 60+ individuals in 2022 alone.
The average loss per victim is $35,101 according to that report.
Anyone potentially being a victim of elder fraud can call the Office for Victims of Crime hotline at 833-FRAUD-11. They are open from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Eastern time.
