People often read about scams happening to others in the news, but most think it could never happen to themselves, let alone, anyone they know like a family member or friend.
Al, 77 and Kathy, 73, Bodary, a retired Leelanau County couple, were the unsuspecting victims of a recent social media scam that defrauded them out of their life savings, leaving them completely depleted. Since their personal and financial information was stolen in March, the couple has fallen behind on their mortgage and car payments, life insurance policy payments and other necessary monthly expenses.
Amanda Reid, Al and Kathy’s daughter, has since set up a GoFundMe to help with her parents’ major and sudden financial losses. She said her mom and dad are both retired after many years of hard work in the school system and for the state, all while raising a family, being involved in their community, and being willing to drop whatever they are doing to help someone in need.
“We’ve known about this stuff for years, but it’s still occurring. As much as we talk to each other about it, it still happens and it’s very frustrating,” Reid said, who also had her Facebook hacked by scammers last summer. “It was just a shock because there’s just no words to even describe it. My parents have always been willing to help anybody, and to find that they were taken advantage of is just heart wrenching thinking they were doing something to help somebody.”
Based on the information Reid’s been told from her parents and brother about the situation, a Facebook friend messaged Al via the platform asking for help due to financial trouble. The scammer impersonating one of Al’s friends then asked him to cash a check with his bank to send the money back via gift cards. Reid said being the good people that her parents are, they agreed to help thinking they were talking to a family friend.
“They took it for what it was, and didn’t actually try to contact them (the scammers) back, or if they did, it went right to these people that were scamming them,” she said. “The bank allowed them to withdraw the cash in the exact amount the same day, which shouldn’t have happened. It has snowballed since then with overdrawing their accounts… and he had a credit card through his bank that they then were able to access, so there were charges on his credit card that he didn’t make or authorize.”
Besides opening new accounts and starting from scratch, Reid said her parents have filed a police report in the meantime and are waiting to hear back from the bank about the status of their lost finances and their options moving forward.
According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), scams targeting older adults have been on the rise, and in 2022 alone, there were 88,262 complaints of fraud that resulted in $3.1 billion in losses from people ages 60 and up. In Michigan, the Federal Trade Commission reported there was $151.7 million in total fraud losses in 2023, with identity theft being the number one reported reason, followed by “imposter scams.”
Despite both Al and Kathy being retired, Al still works parttime as a bus driver at Leland Public School. Reid said her family is now trying to help them in any way they can while also trying to raise awareness for other families that scams are still very much prevalent, even in Leelanau.
“Right now, we’re just trying to take it day by day and trying to raise anything that we can to help them. More importantly, we want to keep raising awareness…” she said. “If someone contacts you via social media, try to reach out to that person by phone or text or somebody that you know in common before just going and doing what they are asking for, just to verify that that is the person that contacted you.”
To donate to the Bodary’s GoFundMe, go to https://gofund. me/41077167.
