It took just 10 minutes for Scott Kilmer to save one of his passengers from being scammed out of $40,000.
But he says he was just doing what anyone would do.
Plus, making sure his passengers are safe is just a part of his job.
https://www.facebook.com/1041ezfm/posts/10158173030563383?__xts__[0]=68.ARBVnTEQYa1K79C7STquX7WlxVupIuzRv5QFT5Gl2eBLJofAWZDK2e4kqKJIMUT0Gc0lY6d1pCK79b0VVg_F5mlhjwCemk-zbts5zBZV4YKzlgyrqqKnnCNbtQQPGeZ-oNYXTsR9WFYP1TZq-PZbdkkJUy2NlhQSIfakUcufMqMVv-gRgEC8V0FnO68BGTxrDC8J-pQAhcodeQU-Hfww03jOoXyyfmAO8yfZ3V4pqsujoQslYAkHluAZSr9jyXyceJqTSkKk1XgEb_Y-V8td12cs-K6hQNc4B7Ts-wIqdgDS4sAP644_FfyaF6dgoeuIkjhVqJHoyWCYyHV1qyro&__tn__=-R
Kilmer was applauded by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office for helping to stop an 83-year-old woman from falling victim to an “imposter scam.”
It all started when Kilmer picked up the woman who was to be driven to the bank.
That seemed normal.
But a red flag went up for Kilmer when he learned that the woman was going to pull money out of an account to give it to someone she didn’t know.
“She was told that she had a relative out on the East Coast that was in dire straits, needed some money to help pay for an IRS bill,” Kilmer told KCCI Des Moines.
Kilmer decided to immediately call the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.
“It took me a whole 10 minutes to do what I did,” Kilmer said.
In that 10 minutes, he saved the woman from losing out on $40,000.
Lynn Hicks, with the Iowa Attorney General’s Office, said that imposter scams are the number one complaint they receive from people over the age of 60.
“The IRS is not going to call you and demand payment like that,” Hicks said. “He just went above and beyond what he needed to do to save this woman from losing a lot of money.”
The Iowa Attorrney General’s Office is asking its citizens to look out for each other to help prevent their neighbors from falling victim to these kinds of scams.
And thankfully, there are people out there who are trying to do just that.
A woman who commented on the Office of the Attorney General of Iowa’s Facebook page claimed that a Wal-Mart clerk stepped up and stopped her daughter from purchasing a money order that the “IRS” was demanding.
“It only takes on person to stop the panic,” she wrote.
And Kilmer isn’t the only taxi driver who recently saved an elderly passenger from a scammer. California taxi driver Rajbir Singh saved a 92-year-old woman in Roseville from being robbed of $25,000.
When he picked the woman up she mentioned that she was going to the bank to withdraw a large sum of money.
She was also going to use the money to pay off the IRS. Singh immediately realized that something was wrong and mentioned this to his passenger.
He pleaded with her to reconsider and let him check out the situation to see if everything was on the up and up. She allowed him to call the person posing as an IRS agent.
When Singh started asking questions, the imposter agent hung up on him and blocked their number.
The woman still wasn’t totally convinced, so Singh convinced her to make a stop at the police station.
Singh went inside while the woman waited in the cab.
He sat and waited for an officer to become available.
Finally, there was one who was able to come out and speak with the woman.
The officer was able to convince the woman that she was being scammed.
Singh then took the woman home.
The police were so impressed by Singh’s efforts to go out of his way to help this woman that they gave him a “Great Citizen Award” and a $50 gift card as a thank you.
https://www.facebook.com/RosevilleCaliforniaPolice/posts/2949366481782384?__xts__[0]=68.ARB2nNC_wKg_lZ3M4br8SUtOZ9oGbxw5YfK15IZxmUhO434hnHXU3b5lHXV5DTLVomELIddpvg240lcosDsrAvcd-KgbAB56hv8wEbBkUt7Gcl6sPzKHvIucO3RARnq-ogwi7–if1OkjVYlLWwTRYtEEgL7nuE_mwJya6HOtAyFyR8sLBKMErn_qAXYWb5YZhf1e2FjQXutsl9j-b5P-9b8DyiKBjJdwE2yH3mFIHmcmskSMqszUiWNFeBob2EbCENnrLPKdJfFL25kHc4WziEzGFb1FKgTipjrLNaRKWktKHXpZEUNrn2cM9_–XBNNgJSgBgWZuQ7B9C6QI1bH0jniw&__tn__=-R
“We love this story because several times throughout, Raj could have just taken his customer to her stop and not worried about her wellbeing. He took time from his day and had the great forethought to bring the almost-victim to the police station for an official response,” the City of Roseville Police Department wrote on their Facebook page. “His quick thinking saved a senior citizen $25,000 and for that, we greatly appreciate his efforts.”
You can learn more about the different kinds of imposter scams and how to avoid them in the link below: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0037-imposter-scams.
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Source: FTCvideos
