There’s no shortage of scams out there that can take (A) your money, (B) your personal data, (C) your sense of security or (D) all of the above.
A recent one I just heard about happened to a friend who has dealt with her share of phony attempts. But these nefarious characters are getting good at what they do. And what makes this call particularly unsettling was the caller came across as an official from Homeland Security.
After identifying himself by name, badge and ID number – he also provided a phone number – his first question caught her off guard: Had she been expecting a package from Mexico?
When she told the man she could not recall getting anything from Amazon or any other place, he informed her the package had been confiscated because it contained banned substances, specifically oxytocin and fentanyl.
“This is when I started to get scared,” she admitted, noting that he grilled her about any recent trips to Mexico (she’d been there 25 years ago on her honeymoon).
She thought, “he thinks I’m importing drugs.”
The man advised her that the call was being recorded, gave her a case number and told her she and her attorney needed to be available to meet with agents at her home in 45 minutes. When she told him she was at work during this middle-of-the-morning call, his response was, “Don’t think we can’t figure out where you are.”
My friend hung up, and a Google search, along with a call to our local police and Homeland Security’s legit office, assured her the call was a hoax.
What I found interesting about this experience is that my Polish-German friend is neither undocumented nor a recent immigrant. She’s a middle-aged highly-educated corporate executive working in a male-dominated field and not afraid to exert her authority in business situations.
Yet she was still shaken even hours after the phony call.
Imagine what it must be like for those who fall into the more vulnerable communities.
The Marie Wilkinson Food Pantry in Aurora, for example, noted an increase of students using its East Aurora High School site in May because their parents had become too fearful of going to grocery stores.
Likewise, the Dominican Literacy Center, which works with the immigrant population, expects fewer students when classes begin in September, even though the majority are documented, because many are fearful of venturing out.
Whether the threat is real or not, it’s the perception that puts so much anxiety on people, said Dominican Literacy Center Executive Director Claire Wiesner-Smillie. It’s for that reason the center, which she described as “low-hanging fruit” for immigration authorities, is no longer requiring student addresses. In fact, she noted, “we won’t even take them” so the center would not be forced to turn over such information.
“What they don’t understand is how many people it impacts … even those who are documented,” insisted Wiesner-Smillie.
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She then recalled a Dominican Literacy Center student from Belarus, who had yet to pass her citizenship test, refusing to video her presentation on taxation in a college accounting class because she was concerned anything she might say could be misconstrued in a negative way about the current administration.
“That’s how scared they are,” Wiesner-Smillie said. “It is one thing to try to encourage people to be smart and safe. But how do you help them get rid of that sense of fear?”
And it’s that negative emotion, whether based on a real or perceived threat, that can greatly impact physical and emotional health because the body does not always distinguish between the two.
“We are still having conversations with other organizations about how we “communicate to our students without buying into that fear game that is so paralyzing,” said Wiesner-Smillie. “We don’t want to play into that game. But a lot can be said for being prepared.”
My friend – who, by the way, did not want her name used any more than those who have far more to fear – was certainly not prepared for that call she received. Threats from the man on the other end, in essence, flipped a neurological switch that triggered an alarm making her brain prioritize survival instincts over common sense.
It also opened her eyes.
“The unease I felt even though I started to feel it was a scam stayed with me the entire day,” she told me. “I was looking over my shoulder … I can’t even imagine how those feelings would be magnified and constant.”