COVINGTON, La. — Footage from a body camera shows the conversation between a deputy and a woman in a car.
“Hello, I’m Deputy Lemoine. How are you are you?” St. Tammany deputy Cliff Lemoine asks Wanda Touard, who answers “OK.”
“What's going on,” he asks.
“I have been going all day. I couldn't talk to anybody,” Touard answers crying.
For six hours, Touard, 74, was held as an emotional hostage to scammers most likely on the other side of the world.
“I'm low on fuel. I haven't eaten. I haven't taken my medication,” she tells the deputy through tears.
Back in July, Reserve St. Tammany Sheriff's Deputy, Deputy Cliff Lemoine and his therapy dog Luna Belle were assigned to do a welfare check on Touard when her family could not get her to respond.
“They told me I was being followed. They knew where I was. I said, ‘Oh my God,’” Touard tells Lemoine.
Touard initiated a call to what she thought was Apple after looking up the number online. They said she had reached “Apple Security” and that scammers were about to buy a $12,000 gold bar out of her bank account, they were going to fix it, but she had to drain her account first.
That's when they had her take nearly $11,000 out of her bank account and go buy gift cards. Meanwhile, they had her click a link that allowed them to remote into her phone. Now the scammers could hear and see everything she was doing. Even trying to text her family.
“You can't connect. You can't talk to anybody. You can't text anybody, because your family will be in jeopardy,” the scammers told her.
They had all the gift card numbers and access codes, cashed them out and then had her go feed more money into a Bitcoin machine at a gas station.
“And Bitcoin was the one that told me, ‘Ma'am, I believe you're being told what to do. Why are you trying to put money in our machine,” Touard remembers.
Sheriff Randy Smith says he has seen an uptick in scammers hitting people in St. Tammany Parish.
“They're from another country. Believe me, if we could track them down and make an arrest
I would love to,” said St. Tammany Sheriff Randy Smith.
He says they even call people and use the real names of officials to tell people they owe money for things like missing jury duty.
“They are doing their homework. They're using names of individuals that either retired, or used to work here, or within the court system,” he explained.
And just to show you how anyone can be a victim of these scams, even Sheriff Smith’s late mother would get these phone calls and would call him to see if they were real.
After losing nearly $11,000, Touard and her pups now have to move to an apartment with lower rent. That deputy who stopped her saved her from losing even more. Even though Touard feels embarrassed, she is speaking out to protect others.
Scammers use fake phone numbers. They even show up on caller ID as an official government agency.
The sheriff says they will never ask over the phone for anyone to send money.
To see if a caller is real, you can call the St. Tammany Sheriff’s non-emergency line: 985-898-2338.
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