 Abledonanaire Major Sponsorship was given by Green Mountain Support Services, Empowering Neighbors with Disabilities to be home in the community. Also sponsorship was given by Washington County Mental Health Services, where hope and support come together, and Champlain Community Services of Vermont. Welcome to this edition of Abledonanaire, the one and only program that focuses on the needs, concerns, and achievements of the definitely able. I'm Lauren Seiler, I'm Lauren Seiler, and on this program we are talking with Alice Goltz, who was on our program seven years ago. She's a mother of a special needs child, but we're here today to discuss scams and people with special needs. Welcome, Alice, to Abledonanaire. Thank you, welcome. Okay, why don't you tell us exactly what happened, you know, why you got scammed, or how you feel you got scammed, and then that's why you're here to alert people of scams and people with special needs. Well, I went, my friend had called me up because they were going to look to get a car, and I saw my friend, she's both my friends, one's in a wheelchair, so I felt bad for them, so I came down to the dealership. The dealership had told us I wouldn't be responsible for the car, and then they applied for seven banks that we would deny. Why were you guys denied at seven banks, and then why did this one car company, who we are not mentioning, accept you? We think that they lied on the application, because they didn't ask the car company because they didn't ask for my income, they just said they wanted it on the credit, because my credit score was good. Okay, do you feel that you've been scammed, or I mean, it wasn't a scam originally, was it? Well, it was sort of like taking advantage. According to the paperwork, if you want to read some of it, from what you explained to Governor Scott in his budget this year specifically said, we're going to help vulnerable adults, but according to that, you got to take an advantage of as a vulnerable adult. Explain why you consider yourself vulnerable, in this case. Because me and my friend, we both don't drive, and the car title is under our name, and it's not under her husband's name who drives the car. Okay, just to let our guests know, there are other scams out there, car dealership scams, as well as a big huge scam in Social Security, which we'll get into later. Knowing that your friend or your group of friends didn't have money for this car, and then you decided in the kindness of your heart to help these people. But why did this go on for so long? Why wasn't it settled at first? Well, I spoke to somebody about it, and they told me to go to Legal Aid, and Legal Aid is involved working on this case, and it's just a process. You want to read some of that paperwork so people can a little bit understand? It's okay. You can read some, just leave names out. Well, me and my friend, we both have, we're both disabled, and when they were handing us the paperwork, they didn't explain it to us. Okay, yeah, that's a big thing. According to this newsletter online, it's called the Special Needs Alliance. April 2019, it's the installment of the voice that was written for the Special Needs Alliance, financial abuse and individuals with disabilities. Financial fraud is among the fastest growing types of abuse for individuals with disabilities that are particularly vulnerable. In most cases, it involves exploitation by someone known to the victim, but in plenty of scams and stranger targets individuals with disabilities and elderly, because it also affects people with that are elderly, by phone or through... I think some of the card dealers took advantage of you, took advantage of other people with special needs, they took advantage of you. By phone and or other means. And by first instance, a family member or a caregiver, right, I mean you're not a caregiver or other close associates, takes advantage of the victim's trust in order to rate their finances. This may take many forms from convincing them to extract cash from an ATM, right? Well, they didn't go to your ATM. The card dealership didn't go to ATM and take money out. But it does happen, okay? And extract cash from an ATM to manipulating them to grant them financial power of attorney or outright theft of their valuables and other assets. This may be accomplished through deception or threats. Is this a large scale systematic plan arrangement for attaining some particular object or putting a particular idea into effect? Meaning, you know what a domino effect is? Domino effect? The definition of domino effect, because this is exactly what happened to you with the card dealership, is a domino effect, okay? Domino effect. No, we're not ordering dominoes, but domino effect, all right? What is an example? Some examples of a domino effect, many real life and behavioral examples in a domino effect, okay? We're not mentioning communist wars, but it has to do with, you went to the dealership, okay? These people conned you into, this was a con. They conned you into this thing. Yeah, right. Your friend, not naming names, conned you into, well not conned, you helped them get a car. Yes. He did not know, him and his wife did not know this was going to happen. Yes. Okay? Thus, dissolving the ending of the domino effect, it's still going to court or whatever the ending of domino effect, friendship is dissolved. Yes, dissolved. So, that is domino effect, involving you, paperwork with the lawyer, et cetera. May I see that for a minute? I'm just going to read one or two things off it, without naming names. All right. Okay? Because at the end, you showed me this, and it said, end quote, okay? Financial exploitation of vulnerable adult. That's end all and be all of this whole thing. It turns to questions. Yep. Any advice for people who are going through the same thing in terms of scams? Because there's a whole bunch of them out there. Ponzi scammed for one. Yeah. Look at what happened with Lehman Brothers. That is in New York. That whole thing is a whole another show. You know? They con people out of money, dissolving the company. You being a person with a challenge, any advice you want to give to other people going through the same thing? Maybe not this or something else? Something else? Well, to get help, speak to somebody that has more knowledge about it. Someone who knows better. Because I almost got scammed where there was somebody said that. You got scammed outside of this? Yes, outside. Said that they were putting money back into my account, and then they put a thousand dollars extra. That's what they said. They said they owed me 300, and then they were going to put another... Then they said, oops, I made a mistake. I put a thousand extra. Then they said, can you send the thousand back? They asked for me to buy these Google cards. I went to Ryde, and Ryde asked me, who are these for? I told them. Then they told me to go to the bank. Then the bank told me not to do nothing, because they knew this was a scam. How much did they try to get you for? A thousand dollars. $1,000. $1,000. $1,000? Wait, $1,000 or $1,000? $1,300. $1,300. Yeah, because you told me, if you want to see that, you told me that your friends, talk about another scam here for a minute, not mentioning names. Your friends got a phone call from people saying they're from another country, and they want them to deposit money into Western Union or something happened with that, and money started disappearing, and they never showed up. That's another scam. It's a whole bunch of scams going on that we should alert the public about, because we're vulnerable adults. People calling, claiming they're from Social Security. People calling, claiming they're from HMFAC. There's a list of scams here. Okay, it's not only around holidays. The activity of professional scammers ramps up. This is according to disabilityadvisor.com. Around the holidays every year, the activities of scammers ramp up from ranging to emotional pleas to donate to the needy, or great sounding offers to double your money to help seasonal expenses. However, once the new year begins, fraudulent activity continues. Additional people falling victim to swindles without being scammed or distressing to anyone. It is especially financially, physically, and emotionally devastating to persons with disabilities. This is according to disabilityadvisor.com. With nearly 50 million people currently identified as disabled, a large percentage of American families are affected by crimes committed in the area of fraud against the disabled. The number of people in this category continue to grow each year to our aging population. In fact, that more females have been larger number of women becoming disabled due to illness, accidents, or disease. In fact, the Social Security Administration estimates, this is a real fact, the Social Security Administration estimates 20-year-olds face a one in four chance they're not able to work until their retirement age due to disability. We'll not be able to work until retirement age. Disabled people are prime victims of criminals who see opportunities to prey on those who are vulnerable or already at risk. Okay, so as soon as you can get your name off this thing, you said it's going, why is it taking the year? Is there a reason for that? Well, it has to be agreed upon by the bank and the car dealer. Right now, the lawyer for the bank is moving to another law firm, so that's what sort of is the holdup. And it was also the holdup because they wanted to try, they were trying to fight to dismiss the case, but the lawyer, the lawyer just told me yesterday that they did not dismiss the case, that we don't need my friend to be a party in this case. And other, according to, again, to disabilityvice.com, financial scams and identity theft despite the fact that the average person on disability receives only a few hundred dollars a year above the property, the average social security check average without a person being retired is 1,400 in something a month. When you divide that, you know, pay rent, food, if they're not on food stamps or whatever the situation is, it's hardly anything. Now, in terms of scams, right, well, in terms of situations, okay, talk about child support, for example, that's not a scam, but if a person's on SSI, which is a little bit different than SSDI, you can't extract child support from a person on SSI. No, you can't. Or pay credit card bills. Well, if a credit card company or creditor trying to call you to get money from an old bill, you can't get it if the person's on SSI or SSDI. Okay? So that gets you out of that hole, right? Or you can't pay a school loan, Department of Education. That's another scam. People claiming to be from Department of Education, oh, you owe money on this or you owe money on that. I hate to tell you how many times this month, we've been scammed, people claiming to be from Social Security. One thing you got to remember, when you, in terms of, you got to know what you're signing. That's one. Always know what you're signing. Don't sign anything until you get somebody that knows contracts to a lawyer, somebody or somebody to look over it. Somebody has to look a family member. Family member is not available as somebody to look over it. That's number one. Never give your Social Security number out. Never give your address, your phone number. When you go to the ATM machine, never ever give someone your PIN number. That stops identity theft. There are agencies like LifeFlock and some others that protect identity theft, but you got to pay for some of those services. Okay? Anything else you want to say to people about what you went through and why this is so important while you're here today? I just want to say that, excuse me, that everybody needs to be careful and to get the help that they need. If they feel that they're being scammed, they need to talk to somebody that can help them work through it so that this way they won't get scammed. There's got to be a way for somebody to stop this. There's, I'm going to, I just had it. There's a scam that's going on with Social Security right now that I'm going to play and hopefully the tape gets it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm getting it. I'm getting it. You should call the national number because. There are, okay, the national, if you've been scammed against Social Security, there's a lot of police agencies that warn in terms of Social Security. But if you've been scammed against Social Security, someone calls up claiming to be for Social Security, hang up immediately and call the following number, 1-800-772-1213. That number for Social Security scams for the real Social Security office is 1-800-772-1213. I'll play that. And they'll give you the fraud number on the recording. Just copy it down. They'll give you their fraud number. But I'm going to, yeah, okay, consumer information from the Federal Trade Commission. Okay, Federal Trade Commission in December said that they're growing scams against people with special needs in Social Security administration. And they try to get you Social Security number or money. This scam is now growing exponentially. To compare in 2017, we heard from the Federal Trade Commission, it has heard from 3,200 people about Social Security and policy scams, okay? And those people reported losing $210,000 so far. It's probably tripled by now. People have lost millions and millions of dollars. This is coming from the Federal Trade Commission. This is exactly what it sounds like. Okay, so this is according to the Federal Trade Commission. So if you've been the victim of identity theft and Social Security numbers, please call 1-800-772-1213. And we can get back to this. So people with special needs are vulnerable populations, right? Elderly people with disabilities, children can be scammed also. The biggest scam with kids, people pull up in a car. Mommy's sick. I need you to take you to the hospital and that kid is kidnapped. That's a big scam that was going on for years and years. John Walsh kind of stopped a lot of those things with missing kids and he's still doing a good job in terms of getting criminals off the streets. But scammers are considered criminals. So we need to put a stop to that. So what is the ADA doing about it? No, the ADA can only go so far. The ADA doesn't cover scams. For those that have been scammed in Vermont, which I'm going to give the number to the Attorney General's Office, General of Vermont. It's on State Street. I'll call Bernie Sanders' office, believe me. No. You get answers. You call his office. If you've been scammed, please call, if you've been scammed in Vermont, please call Contact Assistant Attorney General Shannon Salimber 802-828-3171 or Attorney General T.J. John Levin of Vermont. That number again is 802-828-3171. So people don't go through this again, right? Do you think you can give a couple of pieces of advice so people won't do this again or in terms of what you've gone through? Well, I think that they're working on a bill to be passed. What type of bill? I think I'm not sure it has got passed or not, but for dealers to show them the application for them when they're sending information to help get a car for somebody. Please contact the Commissioner, Monica Cassura-Hutt, the Commissioner for the State of Vermont for people with disabilities in elderly. Her number is, hold on, they can be reached at, for more information on disabilities aging and independent living, if you've been scammed, please contact Monica Hutt at the following number, 802-241-2401. That number again is 802-241-2401. Their fax number is 802-241-0386, 241-0386. The Department of Disabilities, Aging, and Independent Living, their address is HC-2 South 280 State Street, Waterbury, Vermont, 05671. That address again is HC-2 280 State Drive, sorry, State Drive, not State Street, State Drive, Waterbury, Vermont, 05671. Their number again is 802-241-2401. And the number for Social Security is 802-770, I mean sorry, 800-772-1213, 772-1213. Again, this is important. Yes, you may. Call Bernie Sanders office and make your voice heard. Yes, please call your local politician's office, call your police department or anybody else you need to call, but call someone that you can trust. Alice, you want to say one or two other things that are important to this issue? Just get the help that you need, and if you don't feel that you're not sure, then call somebody, and they're not sure, then go to somebody else. And please, please sign, please make sure you're signing the appropriate documents in front of the appropriate people. Again, we would like to thank our sponsors, Green Mountain Support Services, Washington County Mental Health, and Green Mountain Support Services. Thank you to our sponsors for Ableton on Air. This puts an end to this edition of Ableton on Air. I'm Lauren Siler. I'm Lauren Siler. See you next time for the next exciting edition of Ableton on Air. Next week, or next time on Ableton on Air, we'll have Mayor, the Mayor of Montpelier of Vermont, Mayor Anne Watson on, and a couple weeks after that, we will have Community College of Vermont. Thank you again for joining us on this edition of Ableton on Air. Again, I'm Lauren Siler. I'm Lauren Siler. See you next time.