The Perfect Scam

When Brian receives an email from "PayPal," he thinks it must be the refund he's been waiting for, but he is instead drawn into a scam that has him running all over town feeding money into crypto kiosks and exchanging cash for gold coins to hand off to a courier. Brian soon grows suspicious, but he resists the urge to confront the criminals and goes directly to the police. Brian helps detectives set up a sting operation to ensnare the courier and expose a crime ring.

Patricia is enjoying a quiet night babysitting when she discovers that her phone has no service. When she switches to Wi-Fi, a sudden barrage of notifications shows that someone is moving money out of her accounts. This sets Patricia off on a race against time to save her assets from criminals who are even cashing out her stocks. Bob talks with Rachel Tobac, CEO of SocialProof Security, about practical steps we can all take to protect ourselves from SIM swapping scams.

Eric's day-to-day interactions at the gas station where he works have taught him to recognize when something isn't quite right with one of his customers. He's also aware that the crypto kiosk in the store is a tool that is used by criminals to steal money from fearful victims. So one day when Ellen enters the store, talking on her cellphone while frantically looking for the store's crypto kiosk, Eric knows it's time to step in.

Joyce is a retired teacher who works part-time with special needs kids. She's recently divorced after a long marriage, facing a cancer scare, and acting as the primary caregiver for her 96-year-old mother. With all of this weighing on her, she becomes the target of a tech support scam. Over months of instilling fear, the criminals steal more than $1 million from her retirement savings. Kathy Stokes of the AARP Fraud Watch Network stops by to discuss the new "Pause. Reflect. Protect." campaign aimed at combating scams like these.

Josh loves his job as a full-time novelist, but writing and working from home don't give him many opportunities to meet people. So he decides to try a dating site and connects with a woman named Hannah. After months of conversation and growing closer, Hannah tells Josh about her cryptocurrency investments and encourages him to invest as well. Over time, he puts in more than $100,000 and watches his money grow. When he tries to withdraw money from his account, it is frozen and Hannah disappears. Panicked, Josh searches for help online and finds a company that claims to trace and recover stolen crypto funds. The tragedy only deepens when he turns to family for help paying the company's fees.