MALDEN - A national scam caught an older, local artist off guard and left her with little money to pay rent at her affordable housing complex. The criminals called her posing as the Border Patrol and U.S.
Marshals. Despite doing her research, the scammers were still able to get her by using ever advancing technology. "It's not like I just totally blindly went into this.
I tried to check," said Linda Dolph, an artist who makes beautiful prints from her apartment in Malden. "I have a little money. A friend loaned me $1,000 so I could pay rent.
" Scammers claimed package contained drugs, money The scammers called saying they were the Border Patrol, and that they had a package with her name on it. It was being sent from a town in Mexico that she had been to before. They claimed the package had two pounds of cocaine, methamphetamines, fake social security cards, and money for laundering.
The Border Patrol imposter then sent her over to someone claiming to be a U.S. Marshal.
They told her she could come to Texas with a lawyer to clear her name or go through another process to be clear in 24 to 48 hours. Dolph became suspicious and decided to check out the officials they were claiming to be. "By the way, I checked out the federal sites and both of the people I spoke to are listed on those federal sites.
The telephone numbers they were calling from were on those federal sites," said Dolph, describing a tactic the Better Business Bureau (BBB) calls spoofing. Call spoofing scam "Before .
