The elderly aren’t the only scam victims. News 2 talks with the president of a local business who nearly fell for a scam phone call.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — The elderly aren’t the only scam victims. Continuing with our special reports Protecting Parents, News 2 talked with the president of a local business who nearly fell for a scam phone call involving jury duty.
“At that point, he confirmed my name, my address, and my date of birth,” said Kelly Meyers, Nashville market president of cityCURRENT.
Meyers has never fallen for a scam, but this time, she almost did.
“Got pretty close,” said Meyers.
It started with the scammer leaving this voicemail on her cellphone: “Hello. This is Sergeant Johnson with the Williamson County Sheriff’s Office. I was calling today looking to get in contact with Ms. Kelly Meyers.”
The number had a 615 area code; the phone read Portland, Tennessee; and the caller said he had an urgent legal matter. Meyers even did her due diligence, went to the sheriff’s website, and found that a Sergeant Johnson worked there.
“So I’m like, ‘Oh, this could be legitimate,’ so I actually returned the call,” said Meyers.
The scammer told Meyers that she failed to show for jury duty.
“I pushed back and said, ‘You know, as you’re aware, a lot of people impersonate law enforcement in scams, and I would feel better if I could call the sheriff’s department and just confirm that this is legitimate,’ and that’s where he got very angry,” Meyers said, recounting what the scammer said to her. “‘No you can’t do that. This is a felony. There’s a warrant for your arrest. If you just can confirm your signature right now, this can all be done, but if you go down there, there’s no guarantee we’re not going to place you under arrest immediately, and there’s no way to tell how long we’re going to hold you.'”
At that point, Meyers knew she had been scammed, so she hung up and contacted the Better Business Bureau (BBB) of Middle Tennessee for help: “I reached out to the BBB, and they said, ‘Yes, you messed up, but, thankfully, you didn’t mess up too bad.'”
The BBB instructed Meyers to freeze her credit and log on to the BBB website to report the scam. She did both. Now, her goal is to get the message out so others don’t fall for the same scam.
“I want to make sure that no one else falls for this. I have an elderly mother-in-law and I have two 20-something-year-old daughters that I’m convinced if they would have received this call, it probably would have gone a different way,” Meyers said.
Meyers was fortunate the scammer did not get her money. As for the scammer, he’s still out there.