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81-year-old's nightmare run-in with scammers
We have a scam alert to warn you about. The victim is a senior citizen, but it could happen to anyone. The Bowdon woman says they used fear tactic to trick her.
BOWDEN, Ga. - An 81-year-old woman in Bowdon says she was conned out of thousands of dollars by phone scammers posing as Amazon representatives, using fear tactics to pressure her into handing over her savings.
What they're saying:
Lula Keith, who spoke publicly in hopes of warning others, said she’s still shaken by the experience and now afraid to even answer her phone.
"It's very embarrassing," Keith said. "I don't care how they talk about me. If I can help other senior citizens not fall into this scam."
The ordeal began last Friday when Keith received a call from someone claiming to be from Amazon, telling her a new television was on the way and she needed to pay for it. Keith immediately denied placing the order.
"I said, 'No, I haven't. I do not have an account with Amazon and that's not me,'" she recalled.
But instead of ending the call, the scammer escalated the situation, warning Keith she could be investigated for money laundering and that her bank accounts could be frozen.
"I could be handled for money laundering… I'm not involved with anything like that," she said. "You can't pay your bills. I can't buy groceries."
Unable to reach anyone at her bank and increasingly fearful, Keith followed the scammer's instructions for the next four hours. She drove from Bowdon to Carrollton to withdraw $5,000 from her credit union account, then visited multiple stores to purchase reloadable debit cards—$500 on each—and gave the card numbers to the scammers.
The scam only stopped when she returned to a store in Bowdon and an employee, noticing her confusion, intervened.
"She said, 'No, no, no… that's a scam, that's a scam,'" Keith said.
By then, Keith had already lost just over $3,000 of the $5,000 she had withdrawn. She said the funds were emergency savings intended to repair her car.
"Please, please do not [do what I did]," Keith said. "I'm telling the story to help. Although I need my money, I know God will provide. He will provide."
What's next:
The Bowdon Police Department is now investigating the case.
What you can do:
Authorities urge residents, especially senior citizens, to be cautious of unsolicited calls and to verify any financial claims directly with their banks or service providers.
The Source: FOX 5's Kevyn Stewart spoke with 81-year-old Lula Keith, who offered a cautionary tale about a scam, for this article.