Scam Phone Calls

A few months ago, I arrived at work in the late morning on my unscheduled day. I felt relaxed and unhurried from a lovely time in the woods with Phoenix, and I was eagerly looking ahead to crossing items off my to-do list. As I juggled my belongings to unlock my office door, I heard the phone ring from inside. Few people call me on my office phone and when I do receive calls, they are most often from textbook sales representatives. When I finally got the door open and my bags off my shoulder, I didn’t particularly worry about missing the call when the phone was silent. Not a minute later, though, I was startled by the phone ringing again.

Most people wouldn’t go into panic mode receiving a second work phone call, but when you’ve been through the type of trauma that I have, unexpected phone calls can be a huge trigger. I have had to work hard to suppress the urge to instantly ask, “is everything ok???” when friends or family call at unusual times. On the day of the office calls, my stomach started feeling quivery as it always does when I anticipate bad news. The second time the phone rang, I could see the caller ID and noticed that the call was from an area code I didn’t recognize. I wondered what could be so urgent to warrant a second call, so I answered as professionally as possible with my full name. My eyebrows drew together as I listened to a serious-sounding man on the other end of the line.  

“Ma’am, this is Captain Paul Jones from the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office. We are calling to verify information about you since there is a warrant for your arrest. You have missed a court date. Please confirm that this is [my full name] with a birthday of [my real birthday].”

I froze. What??? What could I possibly have done? Did someone use my car or something and speed? No. Did someone steal my identity? Ugh… Wait a minute, there is no way a government official would be calling my place of employment, right? Is this a scam?

I interrupted the caller. “What did you say your name was? What organization are you calling with?”

He repeated his spiel, aggressively pressing me to verify my birthday. I shut it down. “I’ll have to call you back.”

When I asked for a phone number, he gave one. I wrote it down and hung up.

Shaken, I searched the internet for the Berkshire County Sheriff’s Office and found that the area code matched the area code of the caller. The phone number on the website was similar to the one given to me. The caller said that the number was to his direct office line, so maybe it was real in some sense? I knew that I didn’t do anything wrong, but I began to seriously worry about whether my identity had been stolen...

Anxiety started to take over and I couldn’t stop it. I fully went down the rabbit hole. After everything I had gone through with the administrative tasks related to Chris’s death, the last thing I needed was to sort out a legal entanglement related to a stolen identity. Do I need my lawyer??? What a mess this was going to be!

But then, all of the hard work that I have done to be okay kicked in; I remembered that I am not alone. There was no need to give my lawyer more of my business just yet. I texted one friend and then a second, both of whom are level-headed and good with legal issues, but both were unavailable to advise me at that moment. Then, I turned to family. For some reason, I’m always a bit ashamed to admit to them that I don’t have things under control. It’s one of my many flaws that I want everyone, most of all my family, to understand that I’VE GOT THIS.  But, when push comes to shove, who is always there? Family.

My brother was able to speak with me on the phone briefly and advised me to call the sheriff’s office directly. Instead of asking whether this was a fake phone call, he advised me to take the angle that I was helping them out by reporting a scam.

After a minute of steeling myself, I did just that. With a calm and steady voice, I reported that I had received a scam phone call from a person claiming to be Captain Paul Jones from the sheriff’s office. The receptionist was polite although not warm, stating that she would run my name through the system first to see if there was anything on me. In the moment’s pause that followed, I tried to breathe deeply. Of course, the woman came back to say that there was no warrant for my arrest nor any record of my name in her system. The tone of the call changed at that point and I recounted what had happened including the call-back number the scammer had given me. I felt satisfied that I did my civic duty and I was beyond relieved that I had not naively fallen for some trap that would result in a true mess.

After that, I was able to go about my day and function well. Something bothered me underneath the surface, though. This event didn’t knock me off the tightrope, but I do not like how easy it was to feel like my world was about to fall apart. I realized that both my stability and confidence are still tenuously balanced.

When I returned home later, there was a voicemail waiting on the land line. What a surprise, Captain Jones was looking for me at home, too… I took quite a mental pause as I realized that the scammer had clearly targeted me and carried out internet research to find my place of employment, office phone number, birthday, home number and likely address. He probably combs through obituaries to prey on widows. This guy is scum from the darkest, slimiest place on earth…

To blow off steam, I headed out for a run. My self-doubt and uneasiness dissipated with the first few steps. The sun shone on my face on that winter afternoon and I looked to the sky to embrace the soul-nurturing warmth. My pace was faster than it had been in a while and, in the last half mile, I powered up the final hill toward my street. As I did so, I smiled with overwhelming gratefulness - I felt strong.

I felt both incredibly strong and purely happy in that moment.

So, in the end, I say thank you to the scammer. Thank you for showing me that my strength and emotional stability are more firmly rooted than I thought.

I am strong. No person, thing, or event can take that away from me.

news story on this scam