This is what keeps me motivated... (Patreon)

I've just had an email from someone who is a complete stranger to me, but thought that he would share his story. I thought I'd re-post this email here because it's exactly what keeps me motivated to go after the criminals who make scam calls.

This is what PG wrote:

"Hello, I’ve been watching your channel for a little bit and I’d love to share a story with you.

I work at a Texas Walgreens location in the United States, and I worked up front about 2 months ago. I think it was around noon, I was a morning shift. I was checking a customer out when an older woman came in and started showing me a paper with some information written on it. It had a name and what they wanted on it, which this woman just started asking for gift cards. She told me that a police officer wanted her to come into the Walgreens she lived closest to and purchase $1,500 worth of gift cards and meet someone behind the nearby Walmart. 

Having knowledge of these scams and watching videos like yours, my mind immediately knew what was going on. Initially, I refused to tell her where our gift cards were located in the store. Two other customers in line told her it was a scam, followed by me trying to explain that no officer would ever contact you to pay off a warrant. She was so scared, she didn’t know why she was even there. The two customers then contacted the police and they soon showed up, trying to calm the elderly woman down to no avail. Whilst trying to explain it was a scam, she seemed to be forgetting what was being said, thinking she had to buy the gift cards when being told not to. She kept pointing at her slip of paper saying that the officer needed the cards, or she would be arrested, even starting to cry in the front of the store. The scammer even called back, but the responding officer took the phone and tried to talk to them, but they hung up after she presented herself as an officer. Her son came and took her home after about 20 minutes of this back-and-forth, and they went home. 

I love watching your videos, and I just had to share this story with you. I’ve never felt so heartbroken from seeing such evil people take advantage of elderly men and women. Keep up the content. "

I often get comments on YouTube along the lines of "Who would ever fall for these scams?" When you're young and know all about computers it's the sort of question you might ask. But if you have elderly relatives or just someone who is distracted with other things, it's something which happens all the time. I see it every day unfortunately and these scammers just need the 1 in 100.

Thank you to PG for sharing his experience. I'm glad there are PGs out there too.