Vanessa White Fernandes received an unexpected phone call in August. The caller said he worked for the Lackawanna County sheriff’s office and that the Scranton resident had missed a court hearing.
If she didn’t pay a fine, she’d be sent to jail immediately.
Over the next three weeks, she said she sent the callers more than $50,000 from her retirement fund and other savings through a money transfer machine at a West Scranton grocery store. She hid the payments from her wife, terrified of breaking the “gag order” the callers warned about.
When White Fernandes eventually went to Scranton police, officers told her nothing could be done, she said. Lackawanna County Sheriff Mark McAndrew told WVIA News that his office would never request payment over the phone. White Fernandes said she didn’t know that.
Four basic signs of a scam
Scams come in many varieties, but they all work the same way:
- Scammers pretend to be from an agency or organization you know to gain your trust.
- Scammers say there is a problem or a prize.
- Scammers pressure you to act immediately.
- Scammers tell you to pay in a specific way.
- U.S. Social Security Administration
“I came really close to not wanting to be around anymore with this, because I felt so hopeless and alone at the end,” the 62-year-old said. “I think part of why they are so effective is how psychologically based they are. Sure they get money and gift cards and all kinds of things from people, but it's the fear that they instill in people. That's what makes it so effective.”
White Fernandes said she wants to share her story with the hope of other people learning from her mistake.
“I want to tell the story, because it can happen to anyone. I mean, I'm a pretty open, trusting person," she said. "That may have made me more vulnerable."
Weeks of worry
White Fernandes has more than 30 years of experience in the mental health field. The caller said the missed court hearing had to do with a juvenile sexual abuse case. She wondered if it involved her past job or someone she had helped.
The caller said she had signed the subpoena to appear and told her that if she attempted to visit the sheriff’s office before she paid her fines, she would be detained. She wanted to see the signature on the subpoena and prove it wasn’t hers, but the caller said she had to pay the fine first.
The fine started at $1,200. She withdrew money from the bank and drove to the Coinstar machine.
“They had me on an open line while I was at the machine, giving me codes to enter for the machine to operate,” she said. “When I paid them that first amount, they told me that, since my cell phone had cut out a couple of times and dropped a call, that additional fines were added on by the federal judge.”
Each time she received a phone call, the person claiming to be a member of the sheriff’s office provided a name and badge number. When she searched the names online, she found their names listed on the Lackawanna County website. The number on her cell phone looked like it was from the county office building.
Since she didn’t have money for the new fines she had to text an “officer” hourly to check-in. If she was late, the fine grew. Her wife, Brenda Fernandes, would hear an alarm go off hourly.
Over the next three weeks, White Fernandes drained accounts, borrowed money from others and took an advance on a credit card. She became erratic, frantic and distraught. Her wife continuously pressed her on what was wrong.
White Fernandes, still fearful that she would violate a “gag order,” finally agreed to head to the Scranton Police Department with her wife.
White Fernandes said a detective told her there was no way to trace the phone calls or who received the money. Multiple attempts to obtain comment from Scranton Police were unsuccessful.
She didn’t want to believe she had been scammed because it all seemed so real.
'She got to the point of such darkness she wanted to end it. She did not want to live anymore. I have never seen that with her before. That was scary,' said Brenda Fernandes, wife of Vanessa White Fernandes.
“She got to the point of such darkness she wanted to end it. She did not want to live anymore. I have never seen that with her before. That was scary,” Brenda Fernandes said. “When you know someone, when you’re so close to someone, and they’re lost inside the darkness so deeply… all you could really pray for is grace.”
Known in the Scranton area for offering “free hugs” to strangers, White Fernandes even embarked on a hugging tour in the Southeast United States before the pandemic. She said she always wants to believe the best in others.
“I was under duress and felt like I was being threatened and with repercussions that weren't even real, and that was hard to manage after the fact, hard to come to terms with," she said.
Scam prevention
Sheriff’s offices nationwide issue warnings of similar scams, almost daily.
'No legitimate agency does business over the phone,' said Lackawanna County Sheriff Mark McAndrew.
“No legitimate agency does business over the phone. So if you were to get a phone call and they’re representing themselves to be a member of my staff, hang up the phone because we don't call people,” McAndrew said.
The number that showed up on White Fernandes’ phone – which appeared to be from within the county office building – was likely a result of spoofing.
Spoofing is when callers deliberately falsify information transmitted to a caller ID display to disguise their identity, according to the Federal Communications Commission.
“If you call that number to try to trace it, it's disconnected,” McAndrew said. “It's such a large network, it's a huge network, and it's impossible to trace because they're always on the move.”
How to recognize a phone scam
You won’t be arrested: Scammers might pretend to be law enforcement or a federal agency. They might say you’ll be arrested, fined or deported if you don’t pay taxes or some other debt right away. The goal is to scare you into paying. But real law enforcement and federal agencies won’t call and threaten you.
You don’t need to decide now: Most honest businesses will give you time to think their offer over and get written information about it before you commit. Take your time. Don’t get pressured into making a decision on the spot.
Only scammers demand you pay certain ways: Scammers will often insist you pay in a way that makes it hard to get your money back - by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency or payment app. Anyone who insists that you can only pay that way is a scammer.
- Federal Trade Commission
To deceive victims, fraudsters use technology, such as the internet and artificial intelligence, to make ploys more convincing, according to the FBI.
From 2019 to 2023, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center received an average of 758,000 complaints per year nationwide. The losses over those five years totaled $37.4 billion.
McAndrew has heard numerous stories of people being victims of similar scams – people of all backgrounds and level of education.
“They try to get you in a panic mode,” McAndrew said. “But in reality, (the scammers) are very smart. They're very intelligent. They've been doing this for a while, and they know how to get people to panic. And they get desperate, and they make these kind of decisions, and it's sad.”
White Fernandes has spent the last six months thinking about what happened.
“Some of the research I've done since then is if they can get you to feel a sense of urgency and to respond and be afraid from the get go, that's how they grab you, that's how they keep you,” she said. “I want people to know how to protect themselves and how to not go through what I went through.”
