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Another scam: There was the elderly Hispanic gentleman who got a call from his “grandson” in Mexico who needed money to
repair a broken down car. So grandpa wired $1,000 from Western Union and guess what the next call was? “Grandpa, it’s me Jose
calling again,” (do this part in Mexican Spanish language though) “..and that money was great but the car needs some more work,
keep sending money!” And so another $900 went South and then grandpa’s family found out what he was doing. I remember
they met me outside the police station and showed me the Western Union receipts proving he sent money to Mexico. They kept
showing me the papers like I was going to be able to actually do something. I was really tempted to point at the paper and
pretend to get all excited. “Amigos! Yes, I know this man! Juan Del Madrigal in Jalisco!” (c’mon…really?) In my brief fantasy
though I’d stop myself and announce “Oh, hang on…Nope, never mind. I was thinking of Jeffe. Not Juan. Sorry, outa luck!”
Which is what I pretty much did tell them anyway. Because how in the world would I be able to track down the completely
unknown and unidentified suspect in Mexico?!?

Then there was the Korean lady who ran a gas station with her husband. One day she got a phone call from ‘The Electric
Company” and was informed her payment was late and so the power was going to be shut off to her gas station/mini mart. She
fell for it, completely. Freaked out. Told the caller that she was sure she had paid her latest bill, but if they didn’t get it then she
would absolutely send more money ASAP. This is where it gets interesting: the scammer had a complicated three-part set up
going on, where part one was the guy calling to scare his victims. Part two was another call from the “electric company finance
department” which would then set up a third call from the collection department. These guys must have been complete amateurs
because when the victim asked how she could pay right away, the first guy was not ready to take her payment. She was literally
begging to give a credit card number but that wasn’t his department, he had to have the second guy call her. But between the
first and second call, the victim’s husband showed up at work, found out what was going on, and put a quick stop to it. He called
the police and I showed up but of course there was nothing I could do, except marvel how close his wife had come to sending a
chunk of their money away, but the scammer had been too stupid to take her money right away.

Another scam victim, an old lady, called 911 to report getting a phone call from a Computer Tech Support Place and without
much effort she was convinced that her computer was broken and needed to be repaired (er..accessed) remotely by Mr. Helpful
PC Repairman Guy. She got suspicious a day or so later and called the police. She reported that her computer was running really
slow. My advice to her: “Uh…first thing you should do is just unplug your whole computer immediately!”