The Hancock-Henderson Quill, Inc.



THINKING OUT LOUD

Farm Family Insights: by Natalie Dowell Schmitt

Ain't Happen to Me?

I know there have been hucksters and hustlers around since the beginning of currencies, yet I like to think people are honest and trustworthy. I guess that makes me a perfect "mark". I am very careful about our family and business information. I play everything pretty close to the vest, but I have a "tell".

I can blame it on my heritage. I am Scot-Irish and as my dad use to tease his mother-in-law..the Irish wanted to have fun, but the Scot wouldn't pay for it! But like my mother, it is hard to pass up a good bargain, clearance racks or 30% or higher marked off sales. That is how I was blind-sided by one simple phone call.

Over the years there have been a variety of phone calls from people trying to weasel their way into my wallet. My favorite call is the cold call about investing in oil, energy or some other hairball scheme. I have a hard enough time investing with the local investment advisor, why on earth would I invest with someone over the phone I have never met?

It seems to me a scam would be pretty obvious. If it is too good to be true, then it probably isn't true. A foreign accent or the mispronunciation of my name are sure signs these people are not looking out for my best interest. I know to never give my social security number or our farm's tax id number out over the phone unless I made the call. I think you would have to be pretty gullible to be taken in by a scam.

This summer I was working in the kitchen when the house land line phone rang. It was a pleasant young lady calling from my cell phone carrier. They were offering a $45 rebate on each of our cell phones. There was my hook. She repeated my correct address and asked for me to verify my cell phone number. I paused and thought that was strange since she already would have that information in front of her. She said she did, but she wanted to make sure I was the correct person. That sounded reasonable. I told her my cell phone number as I continued mixing up a batch of cookies.

I have a tendency to multi-task so I can at least attempt to get everything done in a day and there lays the problem. I was too distracted to listen to my common sense screaming at me to hang up.

As she danced around my questions and satisfied my caution we finally concluded our conversation. She had extracted from me the four cell phone numbers on our plan. I was going to save $180 which is more than my monthly bill, so I would get money back. I finished my cookie project and didn't give the phone call another thought.

Three days later, Jonathon dropped his phone, again, and he wasn't able to make any calls. He headed into the cell phone store to have things checked out. The nice young clerk discovered our monthly bill was extremely high and the company had halted our service. She suspected we had been scammed. Jonathon gave me a call and forwarded me to the fraud department of the phone company. Sure enough, I had been caught..hook, line and sinker!

It appears once the "nice rebate lady" had my four cell phone numbers, she sold them to someone else. In three days they had racked up $1700 worth of phone calls from Florida to Cuba. In my greed to save money, I was duped. I was now one of those gullible people who fall for obvious scams.

I understand why victims have a hard time coming forward. I didn't want to make a big deal out of what happened. I wanted it to all just disappear. I felt like such an idiot to fall for the scam. I know better. I'm smarter than that…well maybe not. My pride took a beating.

I worked with the fraud department and was able to have everything returned to normal. I now have a password protecting my account from access by unwanted people. My monthly bill has returned to normal. I have learned to be more cautious and suspicious of a "great deal". My new philosophy is if they call you, they don't need you to verify who you are. They need to verify who they are because you know who you are.

I have shared my story with you because there is another type of scam going around in the country. I found a notice in the milk house from our creamery warning us about a letter.

If you received a Notice Letter from the Registrar Corp in regards to FDA requiring registration renewals, DO NOT RESPOND! Contact your local creamery for verification and authenticity. While you think it can't happen to you, it can…very easily.

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As their four children pursue dairy careers off the family farm, Natalie and Mark are starting a new adventure of milking registered Holsteins just because they like good cows on their farm north of Rice, Minnesota.

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