NBC10 Responds spoke with one victim from the Philadelphia area who wanted to share her story, however.

Kate Kleinert told NBC10 it started back in 2020 when she was browsing Facebook and a man named “Tony” sent her a friend request. Kleinert’s husband had passed 12 years prior.

“I never, ever, ever accept those friend requests,” she said. “But for some reason, just one day I did.”

Tony was a handsome man who said he was a surgeon who was working on a contract with the United Nations in Iraq.

“And he had read my profile on Facebook, liked dogs, liked gardening, liked all the things that I liked and wanted to get to know me better,” Kleinert said.

A few days after meeting each other, Tony asked Kleinert to move to what is now known as Google Chat so that they could speak to each other.

“It was just nice having a conversation with the man against just in every day,” she said. “Every night he would call and say, ‘How was your day, honey?’”

After a few months, the conversation between the two turned romantic. Tony then asked Kleinert to send a gift card to his daughter at a boarding school in England. Kleinert figured it would take weeks to send the gift card. Tony told her to take a picture of the front and back of the card and send the picture, however. He then asked for a similar gift for his son as well as gifts for himself.

“There was always a request for Tony,” Kleinert said. “Needed better food where he was. He needed a better signal to be able to call me. He needed to bribe someone to be able to get better food or what have you.”

Kleinert said she sent so much money to Tony that she was having trouble paying her bills.

“My cellphone got turned off every month until I could scrape together money to get it turned back on. And my electricity had been turned off,” she said. “I went through my savings, my 401K, my husband’s, the rest of his life insurance.”

As the amount of money she gave Tony grew, so did their relationship plans.

“The plan was Tony would come here on leave but then put in for his retirement and not go back,” she said. “And we would get married and then we would go get the children and just have this wonderful life together.”

Kleinert said they set December 10, 2020, as the date that they would meet. Tony was supposed to call when he landed at the airport.

“I had a new dress. I did my nails. I redid my nails. I did my hair,” she said.

Tony never arrived, however. Kleinert got a call the next morning from someone who claimed Tony had been arrested at the airport.

“But now they needed bail money to get him out of jail,” she said. “$20,000 they wanted me to hand over. And all I could do was cry because I didn’t even have $20 to my name at that point.”

It was at that moment that Kleinert realized she had been scammed. At that point, she had lost around $39,000.

Kleinert later shared her story with her family as well as law enforcement. She also struggled for years to recover financially, a struggle that was amplified when a portable unit she used to replace her broken air conditioner caught fire in the summer of 2022, destroying all her possessions and killing her six dogs.

Even after that, she said she got another call from Tony, asking her for more money.

Eventually, Kleinert was able to buy a new home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, using the proceeds from her home insurance. Kleinert currently works with the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline to protect other people from scammers.

“It means a great deal that I can reach out to other people and maybe help one person not fall for the same thing I did,” she said.

As for Tony, Kleinert said she eventually found out he wasn’t a doctor or the man she saw in the picture on Facebook. Instead, he was a 55-year-old Nigerian man.

Tips on protecting yourself from scammers

Theresa Payton, a cyber security expert, told NBC10 that just about anyone is vulnerable to skilled scammers.

“They could teach a masterclass in human behavior,” Payton said. “How to manipulate. How to build trust.”

Payton believes social media companies should do their part to protect people.

“For example, when they get a friend request, being able to say this account is not very old or this account says they live in America, but it’s Indonesia, like a little checklist before you accept a friend invitation,” Payton said.

Payton said the red flags to look for are if the relationship is escalating quickly or if they ask for money in any form. She also recommended that anyone interacting with a stranger online should put the person’s picture in a reverse image search. If it comes back associated with multiple names and accounts, it’s a scam.

Payton says time is of the essence for victims of scams to minimize their losses. If you or a loved one have been victimized, call your bank first, then law enforcement. You can also file a report on the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

In a statement released Wednesday, the CFPB claims for years, the bank repeatedly shared inaccurate, negative information about its customers to consumer reporting companies.

The information, the agency said, included “systemic errors about credit card delinquencies and bankruptcies.”

In addition to having to pay nearly $8 million to its own customers, the CFPB is ordering TD Bank to pay a $20 million civil money penalty.

“The CFPB’s investigation found that TD Bank illegally threatened the consumer reports of its customers with fraudulent information and then barely lifted a finger to fix it,” said CFPB Director Rohit Chopra in a statement. “Rather than treating its customers fairly and following the law, TD Bank’s management clearly cared more about growth and expanding its empire through mergers. Regulators will need to focus major attention on TD Bank to change its course.”

The agency said that these kinds of reports — including credit reports, employment screening reports, tenant screening reports, and other background reports — are often used by financial institutions, employers, and landlords, among others, to decide whether to extend credit, housing, or employment to a consumer.

The inaccurate information shared by TD Bank related to credit card and bank deposit accounts, including accounts TD Bank knew or suspected were fraudulently opened, the CFPB said.

After the bank realized it was botching its reporting to consumer reporting companies, it took far too long to correct many of its errors, according to the CFPB.

Contacted for comment, TD Bank responded with a statement that read, before the settlement with the CFPB, the bank had already “implemented enhancements” to address “these matters.”

“Long before this settlement, TD self-identified these matters and voluntarily and proactively implemented enhancements to our furnishing and dispute handling practices…” the statement read, in part.

NBC10 Responds believes this is a lesson for everyone to be sure to check their credit reports on a regular basis.

You can check your credit score here.

If something doesn’t look right, there are links on our Helpful Links page that can help customers dispute an error.

Check your credit score:

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/index.action

Dispute credit score error:

https://www.equifax.com/personal/credit-report-services/credit-dispute/

https://www.transunion.com/credit-disputes/dispute-your-credit

https://www.experian.com/disputes/main.html

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Contracts of carriage for the top 5 airlines at Philadelphia international airport:

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TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5

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TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7

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To report a suspected COVID scam, go to tips.HHS.gov or call 800- HHS-tips

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Report an internet scam to the FBI (Note: This page gets a lot of visitors. If it doesn’t respond, try back later.)
Or call 215-418-4000

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Important credit counseling links:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/coronavirus/mortgage-and-housing-assistance/mortgage-relief/

https://www.phfa.org/forms/counseling_agencies/chci_agencies/chci_philadelphia.pdf

https://urbanleaguephila.org/what-we-do/housing-counseling/

https://www.fanniemae.com/here-help-homeowners

https://www.hud.gov/sites/dfiles/Housing/documents/RevUpdHmownSuc121518fnl.pdf

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 20

Find unclaimed funds or property in Pennsylvania

Find unclaimed funds in New Jersey

Find unclaimed funds or property in Delaware

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 19

Peco phone scams: If you are suspicious of a call or unsure if it is PECO, hang up and call PECO directly at 1-800-494-4000.

MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16

Mortgage Help:

https://www.consumerfinance.gov/mortgagehelp/

https://clarifi.org/

http://www.nwcsinc.org/

Home Utilities:

LIHEAP

https://www.dhs.pa.gov/Services/Assistance/Pages/LIHEAP

https://www.nj.gov/dca/divisions/dhcr/offices/hea.html

https://dhss.delaware.gov/dssc/liheap.html#:~:text=Low%20Income%20Home%20Energy%20Assistance%20Program%20%28LIHEAP%29%20The,help%20in%20meeting%20their%20costs%20of%20home%20energy.

CAP

https://www.peco.com/MyAccount/CustomerSupport/Pages/CAPRate.aspx

https://www.pgworks.com/residential/customer-care/crp

Deferred Payment Agreement (PSEG)

https://nj.pseg.com/saveenergyandmoney/gethelppayingyourbill/billpastdue

Car Payments:

https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/coronavirus-car-payment-relief-programs.html

https://www.experian.com/blogs/ask-experian/what-happens-if-you-defer-a-car-payment/

Credit Cards

https://www.equifax.com/personal/education/covid-19/negotiate-debt-with-lenders/

https://clarifi.org/https://www.nerdwallet.com/article/finance/credit-card-debt

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I honestly didn’t think anything of it when “James Williams” reached out to me via social media in late February asking, “can I have a conversation with you?”

I followed him back and sent him a direct message.

“How can I help you?” I asked.

“I just want to be friends with you,” he answered. “You look so wonderful and respectable that words just cannot express how beautiful you are.”

Flattering. But wow, red flag there. But I played along, just to see where this would take us. I asked the Secret Service to follow along as well.

“Romance scams are pretty prevalent,” Kristie Sandefur, an investigative analyst with the Secret Service in Philadelphia, told NBC10.

Sandefur said the daily interactions that ensued were classic romance scam.

James asked me where I live. He said he was from Seattle but was “currently in Syria working with the United Nations, as a military orthopedic surgeon.”

James said he had one son, Jack. He sent me a picture that showed a man and a teenager in sunglasses.

“This is all a part of that relationship building phase where they’re earning your trust,” Sandefur said. “They’re trying to bring you into their circle. Make you a part of their family.”

Two weeks after our “relationship” began, James professed something to me.

“My feelings for you is growing stronger each day,” he wrote. “I want to talk with you face to face and feel you near me.”

“This is playing out exactly how we would expect it to play out,” Sandefur said.

Sandefur said these romance scams are all according to script and often target people who are lonely.

“One thing to just be aware of is this is these people’s full-time jobs,” Sandefur said. “This is all they do. You know what I mean? They’re essentially chained to a desk for the entire day. They’re given multiple phones. They’re given multiple aliases, identities and they’re you know, told to contact a hundred Americans in a day.”

James told me he had exceeded his vacation limit.

“The only way I can leave camp now and come see you is if you are going to help me and apply for my vacation,” he wrote.

He told me we needed to apply to the United Nations.

“I think he was trying to add some legitimacy by using the United Nations,” Sandefur said. “Clearly not a member of the United Nations.”

James gave me an email address and told me what to say.

“The UN vacation department is going to charge you some money,” he wrote.

Sandefur said that the United Nations website has a fraud alert to protect people from scammers like James.

I emailed the address that James gave me and received a response that said they received my email requesting the vacation certificate. The response also cited a supposed law stating that I needed to pay $14,000 in U.S. dollars. The reply stated they could accept the payment through bitcoin, bank to bank deposit or bank deposit.

“Very typical in non-English speaking countries, you know, fairly confident that person is overseas,” Sandefur said. “And then all the grammatical errors. The domain that that email was sent from is not a United Nations domain.”

I asked where to send the money and I was given bank account information of a woman in Canon City, Colorado.

“That person, likely a money mule,” Sandefur said. “Money mules are people that scammers basically recruit to move money for them.”

We called the numbers listed for that woman. Two of those numbers were disconnected. We didn’t hear back from the third number after we left a message.

I never sent any money and I continued to receive daily messages from James. But now I just ignore them. Just like you should from the very beginning.

The FTC also shared additional advice about protecting yourself from romance scams.

Never send money, crypto, gift cards, bank or wire transfers to anyone you’ve never met in person. Be suspicious of excuses for why a real life meeting is impossible. Do a reverse search of any pictures shared. If you see those pictures associated with another name or details don’t match, you’re dealing with a scammer.

If you haven’t done yours yet or don’t like the amount of this year’s refund and want some tips for next year, NBC10 Responds has you covered.

From deductions to credits to audits, we’re helping you maximize your refund.

Watch our “Maximizing Your Refund” special on NBC10 and in the video embedded above. Also, take a look at the helpful links below.

Campaign for Working Families 2024 Tax Sites

Free Tax Return Preparation for Qualifying Taxpayers

Get Free Tax Prep Help

Request a Wage Tax Refund

Home Energy Tax Credits

Extension of Time to File Your Tax Return

NBC10 Responds spoke with one victim from the Philadelphia area who wanted to share her story, however.

Kate Kleinert told NBC10 it started back in 2020 when she was browsing Facebook and a man named “Tony” sent her a friend request. Kleinert’s husband had passed 12 years prior.

“I never, ever, ever accept those friend requests,” she said. “But for some reason, just one day I did.”

Tony was a handsome man who said he was a surgeon who was working on a contract with the United Nations in Iraq.

“And he had read my profile on Facebook, liked dogs, liked gardening, liked all the things that I liked and wanted to get to know me better,” Kleinert said.

A few days after meeting each other, Tony asked Kleinert to move to what is now known as Google Chat so that they could speak to each other.

“It was just nice having a conversation with the man against just in every day,” she said. “Every night he would call and say, ‘How was your day, honey?’”

After a few months, the conversation between the two turned romantic. Tony then asked Kleinert to send a gift card to his daughter at a boarding school in England. Kleinert figured it would take weeks to send the gift card. Tony told her to take a picture of the front and back of the card and send the picture, however. He then asked for a similar gift for his son as well as gifts for himself.

“There was always a request for Tony,” Kleinert said. “Needed better food where he was. He needed a better signal to be able to call me. He needed to bribe someone to be able to get better food or what have you.”

Kleinert said she sent so much money to Tony that she was having trouble paying her bills.

“My cellphone got turned off every month until I could scrape together money to get it turned back on. And my electricity had been turned off,” she said. “I went through my savings, my 401K, my husband’s, the rest of his life insurance.”

As the amount of money she gave Tony grew, so did their relationship plans.

“The plan was Tony would come here on leave but then put in for his retirement and not go back,” she said. “And we would get married and then we would go get the children and just have this wonderful life together.”

Kleinert said they set December 10, 2020, as the date that they would meet. Tony was supposed to call when he landed at the airport.

“I had a new dress. I did my nails. I redid my nails. I did my hair,” she said.

Tony never arrived, however. Kleinert got a call the next morning from someone who claimed Tony had been arrested at the airport.

“But now they needed bail money to get him out of jail,” she said. “$20,000 they wanted me to hand over. And all I could do was cry because I didn’t even have $20 to my name at that point.”

It was at that moment that Kleinert realized she had been scammed. At that point, she had lost around $39,000.

Kleinert later shared her story with her family as well as law enforcement. She also struggled for years to recover financially, a struggle that was amplified when a portable unit she used to replace her broken air conditioner caught fire in the summer of 2022, destroying all her possessions and killing her six dogs.

Even after that, she said she got another call from Tony, asking her for more money.

Eventually, Kleinert was able to buy a new home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, using the proceeds from her home insurance. Kleinert currently works with the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline to protect other people from scammers.

“It means a great deal that I can reach out to other people and maybe help one person not fall for the same thing I did,” she said.

As for Tony, Kleinert said she eventually found out he wasn’t a doctor or the man she saw in the picture on Facebook. Instead, he was a 55-year-old Nigerian man.

Tips on protecting yourself from scammers

Theresa Payton, a cyber security expert, told NBC10 that just about anyone is vulnerable to skilled scammers.

“They could teach a masterclass in human behavior,” Payton said. “How to manipulate. How to build trust.”

Payton believes social media companies should do their part to protect people.

“For example, when they get a friend request, being able to say this account is not very old or this account says they live in America, but it’s Indonesia, like a little checklist before you accept a friend invitation,” Payton said.

Payton said the red flags to look for are if the relationship is escalating quickly or if they ask for money in any form. She also recommended that anyone interacting with a stranger online should put the person’s picture in a reverse image search. If it comes back associated with multiple names and accounts, it’s a scam.

Payton says time is of the essence for victims of scams to minimize their losses. If you or a loved one have been victimized, call your bank first, then law enforcement. You can also file a report on the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

“I’ve been here ten years,” Carucci told NBC10. “I put my life and blood and soul into this business. I’m here all the time.”

That livelihood was being threatened everyday by shoplifters, however.

“We had like, I would say, two or three shoplifters a day,” he said. “I would say we lost upwards of $50,000 to theft. That’s a lot of money. That’s a lot of money coming out of my pocket.”

Carucci was not alone. According to Philadelphia Police, retail theft went up 27.56% in the city in 2023 compared to the previous year.

Carucci told NBC10 he could only watch after security cameras captured a shoplifter stealing from his store. So he started looking into options beyond the cameras he already had in place. His search ultimately led him to a new AI program called “Veesion.”

The program’s cofounder, Benoit Koenig, told NBC10 his company feeds businesses’ live security footage into their AI system. The AI then analyzes customers in the store and picks up on certain movements that could suggest someone is stealing. That movement could be something as simple as someone slipping an item into their pocket.

“When someone on the shopping floor conceals an item in clothes, bag, backpack, purse, so that they can actually act on the spot and not just see the damages afterwards,” Koenig said.

NBC10 Responds got a firsthand look at how the program works. One NBC10 Responds producer went down the aisle of Carucci’s store, took some candy off the shelf and put it in her bookbag. Carucci was immediately alerted on his phone.

“Okay, so when you were concealing the item, I immediately, seconds, got the alert,” he said.

The alert went through the Veesion app along with a video of the suspected shoplifter in action.

Carucci said shoplifting has decreased at his store since he installed the device.

“If the theft continues the way it was going, I was either going to have to stop my business, close my business, or the other option I had was to raise the prices,” Carucci said.

Veesion said their AI is only in a few hundred stores across the country. But it’s not the only AI program that’s being used to crackdown on crime.

The Loss Prevention Research Council (LPRC) at the University of Florida is testing different theft prevention measures on a larger scale.

Dr. Read Hayes, the director and founder of the LPRC, said his team is working with 110 tech companies and 88 retailers, including Target and Walmart, to help cut store losses down.

“None of them have told us that shoplifting or theft or losses are down or flat,” Hayes said.

Hayes’ team works in a one-of-a-kind mock store and they’ve conducted hundreds of real world projects with store simulations, multiple surveillance cameras and locking devices for merchandise.

Hayes said they’ve also studied AI as a possible solution.

“There’s AI in here that could pick up if you’re not actually scanning an item at self-checkout,” he said.

Carucci told NBC10 the AI technology is helping him keep more money in his pocket.

“It’s been a godsend and it’s already paid for itself like ten times over,” he said.

Philadelphia Police said retail theft continues to increase in 2024 and is up 30 percent compared to the same time last year.

On Thursday, NBC10 aired our “Managing Your Money” special. Whether you’re struggling with food prices, struggling to pay your mortgage or facing credit card debt, we have expert advice as well as information on free programs and available financial help. 

Click on the images below for a list of helpful links, contact information and resources.

Mortgage help

Basic repairs and loans for renovations

Low Income Home Energy Assistance (LIHEAP) 

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Eligible Facebook users have only one day left to file a claim in a new nationwide settlement involving the social media giant.

The deadline to file in the $725 million class-action settlement is Aug. 25, 2023.

The settlement was reached with Facebook’s parent company, Meta Platforms Inc. following a lawsuit, which alleged Facebook made users’ data available to third parties without their permission and claimed the platform did not monitor or enforce third-party access to the data they received. That includes the collection of data by now-defunct political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which went on to be used for political advertising on the platform.

For those unsure if they are eligible, the eligibility requirements recently changed.

The guidelines for the settlement were expanded to include even more users. But how much you could receive, and what you’ll need in order to file a claim depends on several factors.

Here’s what to know:

Who is eligible to file a claim?

Anybody who was a U.S. Facebook user at any point between May 24, 2007 and Dec. 22, 2022 is eligible to file a claim.

Under the latest update, individuals who held Facebook accounts during the class period of the lawsuit that are now deleted are also eligible to file a claim.

An email sent to Facebook account holders said that the change affects individuals who deleted one or more Facebook accounts in the class period of May 24, 2007 and Dec. 22, 2022 before creating a new Facebook account in the same period.

How do I file a claim?

Individuals hoping to receive a payment as part of the class-action settlement can file a claim here at any point through Aug. 25, 2023.

Those who are filing a claim for a deleted account are asked to do the following:

1. Go to the Settlement Website
2. Click on “Submit Claim.”
3. Click the link located at the top of the page to edit your claim (“Filed A Claim? Click Here to Edit Your Claim”).
4. Provide the Notice ID and Confirmation Code provided at the top of this notice in order to access and edit your claim.
5. In the “Details” section of the form, proceed to the third question (“Are you filing a claim for a current account, a deleted account or a combination of both?”)
6. Select from the options: “Current Account(s)”, “Deleted Account(s)” or “Both Current and Deleted Accounts.”
7. Complete the information requested regarding your account(s), as applicable.

What do I need in order to file a claim?

In addition to providing some personal information, as well has the preferred method of payment, class-action members will be asked to submit their Facebook username, along with any phone numbers and email addresses associated with the account.

How to find your Facebook username

Your specific Facebook username can be found by logging onto your Facebook account, and then navigating to: “Account” > “Settings and Privacy” > “General Account Settings” > “Username.”

How much money could I receive in a payment?

The payment size for each individual ultimately depends on how long each person was a Facebook user and how many users ultimately file a claim before the deadline, the settlement administrator says.

Administrative and court costs will initially be deducted from the overall settlement total, creating a “net settlement fund,” which payments will be paid out of from.

The amount each claimant receives will then be determined by the length of Facebook usage and number of overall claimants.

Each eligible claimant will be assigned “one point for each month” they had an activated Facebook account during that window. Once the total number of claimants and their points have been determined, along with the total settlement fund amount, each person will then receive a designated amount, multiplied by their total number of points.

Deadlines to know

The deadline for those looking to object to or opt out of the settlement was July 26, 2023.

Those who do not file a claim, opt out or object to the settlement are automatically part of the settlement, but are ineligible to receive a payment unless a claim is filed.

The deadline to file a claim is on Aug. 25, 2023.

The final approval hearing for the settlement is scheduled for Sept. 7, 2023 at 11 a.m. CDT.

More information about the newest settlement can be found here.

Gift’s car was stolen in front of her home back on March 12. She reported the theft and even received a police report. On March 28, she appealed the speeding tickets with the PPA. 

“They sent me an email, said they got my documentation, everything,” she said. “It would take five to seven business days for them to give me an answer.” 

Gift told NBC10 she still never got an answer after several weeks however. 

“Two weeks later I called. I still did not have an answer,” Gift said. “Two weeks later, it’s in review. Week later, it’s in review.” 

Gift then contacted the PPA again. 

“I had a couple of emails to the PPA and they said, ‘We received your information. We are all backlogged. We’re busy and we’ll get to you as soon as possible.” 

Gift then reached out to NBC10 Responds for help. 

“I didn’t know where else to go,” Gift said. 

NBC10 Responds then reached out to the PPA. 

“The speed camera violations associated with this vehicle, along with supporting dispute documents, were sent by the PPA to the Office of Administrative Review (OAR), the agency that reviews speed camera disputes,” a spokesperson wrote. “At the request of the PPA, OAR conducted an expedited review of all the violations and dismissed them.”

Gift then called to check on her status and confirmed the violations were dismissed. 

NBC10 Responds also reached out to Philadelphia’s OAR to find out how long it takes to review speed camera disputes. 

“When the PPA received the information from Ms. Gift on 4/24, it was placed on an Admin Review sheet sent to OAR from PPA every 2-3 weeks. On this sheet are cases that need specific action by OAR,” a city spokesperson wrote.  

“Ms. Gift’s tickets were sent on the May 8th’s Admin Review Sheet, along with 100 other cases that needed review. Generally, OAR reviews these cases within the 2-3 weeks time frame.”

Gift’s email history with the PPA showed that she sent them her appeal on March 28 rather than April 24 however. When NBC10 Responds asked the city to address the discrepancy, they sent us back to the PPA which confirmed it received Gift’s first appeal on March 28. They didn’t have any additional comments however and it remains unclear why it took the PPA nearly a month to send Gift’s case for review. 

“If somebody is in the same situation as me, do not give up,” Gift said. “Be persistent. You will get somewhere.” 

If you find yourself in a similar situation to Gift, you should contact Philadelphia’s Office of Administrative Review directly.

NBC10 Responds spoke with one victim from the Philadelphia area who wanted to share her story, however.

Kate Kleinert told NBC10 it started back in 2020 when she was browsing Facebook and a man named “Tony” sent her a friend request. Kleinert’s husband had passed 12 years prior.

“I never, ever, ever accept those friend requests,” she said. “But for some reason, just one day I did.”

Tony was a handsome man who said he was a surgeon who was working on a contract with the United Nations in Iraq.

“And he had read my profile on Facebook, liked dogs, liked gardening, liked all the things that I liked and wanted to get to know me better,” Kleinert said.

A few days after meeting each other, Tony asked Kleinert to move to what is now known as Google Chat so that they could speak to each other.

“It was just nice having a conversation with the man against just in every day,” she said. “Every night he would call and say, ‘How was your day, honey?’”

After a few months, the conversation between the two turned romantic. Tony then asked Kleinert to send a gift card to his daughter at a boarding school in England. Kleinert figured it would take weeks to send the gift card. Tony told her to take a picture of the front and back of the card and send the picture, however. He then asked for a similar gift for his son as well as gifts for himself.

“There was always a request for Tony,” Kleinert said. “Needed better food where he was. He needed a better signal to be able to call me. He needed to bribe someone to be able to get better food or what have you.”

Kleinert said she sent so much money to Tony that she was having trouble paying her bills.

“My cellphone got turned off every month until I could scrape together money to get it turned back on. And my electricity had been turned off,” she said. “I went through my savings, my 401K, my husband’s, the rest of his life insurance.”

As the amount of money she gave Tony grew, so did their relationship plans.

“The plan was Tony would come here on leave but then put in for his retirement and not go back,” she said. “And we would get married and then we would go get the children and just have this wonderful life together.”

Kleinert said they set December 10, 2020, as the date that they would meet. Tony was supposed to call when he landed at the airport.

“I had a new dress. I did my nails. I redid my nails. I did my hair,” she said.

Tony never arrived, however. Kleinert got a call the next morning from someone who claimed Tony had been arrested at the airport.

“But now they needed bail money to get him out of jail,” she said. “$20,000 they wanted me to hand over. And all I could do was cry because I didn’t even have $20 to my name at that point.”

It was at that moment that Kleinert realized she had been scammed. At that point, she had lost around $39,000.

Kleinert later shared her story with her family as well as law enforcement. She also struggled for years to recover financially, a struggle that was amplified when a portable unit she used to replace her broken air conditioner caught fire in the summer of 2022, destroying all her possessions and killing her six dogs.

Even after that, she said she got another call from Tony, asking her for more money.

Eventually, Kleinert was able to buy a new home in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, using the proceeds from her home insurance. Kleinert currently works with the AARP Fraud Watch Helpline to protect other people from scammers.

“It means a great deal that I can reach out to other people and maybe help one person not fall for the same thing I did,” she said.

As for Tony, Kleinert said she eventually found out he wasn’t a doctor or the man she saw in the picture on Facebook. Instead, he was a 55-year-old Nigerian man.

Tips on protecting yourself from scammers

Theresa Payton, a cyber security expert, told NBC10 that just about anyone is vulnerable to skilled scammers.

“They could teach a masterclass in human behavior,” Payton said. “How to manipulate. How to build trust.”

Payton believes social media companies should do their part to protect people.

“For example, when they get a friend request, being able to say this account is not very old or this account says they live in America, but it’s Indonesia, like a little checklist before you accept a friend invitation,” Payton said.

Payton said the red flags to look for are if the relationship is escalating quickly or if they ask for money in any form. She also recommended that anyone interacting with a stranger online should put the person’s picture in a reverse image search. If it comes back associated with multiple names and accounts, it’s a scam.

Payton says time is of the essence for victims of scams to minimize their losses. If you or a loved one have been victimized, call your bank first, then law enforcement. You can also file a report on the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center website.

The struggling home goods retailer, which also owns Buybuy Baby, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in April after it failed in several last-ditch efforts to raise enough money to keep the company alive.

That means the clock is ticking on finding last-minute deals or using up those gift cards.

Last Day to Use Bed Bath & Beyond Coupons and Welcome Rewards

Bed Bath & Beyond addressed updates on coupon use in the frequently asked questions section of their website.

“Customers can no longer redeem coupons,” the website stated.

But there’s still a way to use them: The Container Store said it will offer 20% off any single item through May 31, 2023, if you bring “a competitor’s blue coupon” to one of their locations.

Welcome Rewards points can be redeemed until May 15. No new rewards can be redeemed.

Deadline to Use Bed Bath & Beyond and BuyBuy Baby Gift Cards

The company said they expect that gift cards will continue to be accepted through May 8.

What About Returns and Credits?

Items bought before April 26 can be returned until May 24.

Merchandise credits can be used through May 8.

When Will Bed Bath & Beyond Close?

For the time being, all 360 Bed Bath & Beyond stores and 120 Buybuy Baby locations will remain open for customers.

The retailer said it will start an orderly wind-down of its operations but will continue to seek a buyer for all or some of its businesses.

“While the commencement of a full chain wind-down is necessitated by economic realities, Bed Bath & Beyond has and will continue to market their businesses as a going-concern, including the Buybuy Baby business,” the company’s chief financial officer and chief restructuring officer Holly Etlin wrote in a Sunday declaration to New Jersey’s bankruptcy court.

News4 Consumer Reporter is #Working4You. Subscribe to The 4Front newsletter for more stories that keep you at the forefront of today’s world.

After the most recent kidnapping of Americans in Mexico, visitors – including spring breakers – are being advised to continue practicing extreme caution while in the country.

A group of four childhood friends from North Carolina drove to Mexico last week for a medical procedure and were attacked and kidnapped by cartel gunman, FBI officials said. Two of the Americans were killed and two survived the deadly encounter, in which officials say may have been a case of mistaken identity.

Tamaulipas, where the kidnapping occurred, was listed on the State Department’s “Do Not Travel” list, citing a heightened risk of crime and kidnapping.

“Violent crime – such as homicide, kidnapping, carjacking, and robbery – is widespread and common in Mexico,” the department wrote on it’s travel advisory, which was last updated in October.

U.S. travel advisories are issued in four levels: exercise normal precautions, exercise increased caution, reconsider travel, and do not travel.

These states are on the Do Not Travel list:

• Sinaloa
• Zacatecas
• Tamaulipas
• Colima
• Guerrero
• Michoacán

State officials also warned that the U.S. government is limited to the emergency services it can provide in many parts of the Mexico and issued guidelines for Americans visiting the country.

• Keep traveling companions and family back home informed of your travel plans. If separating from your travel group, send a friend your GPS location. If taking a taxi alone, take a photo of the taxi number and/or license plate and text it to a friend.
• Use toll roads when possible and avoid driving alone or at night. In many states, police presence and emergency services are extremely limited outside the state capital or major cities.
• Exercise increased caution when visiting local bars, nightclubs, and casinos.
• Do not display signs of wealth, such as wearing expensive watches or jewelry.
• Be extra vigilant when visiting banks or ATMs.

Click here for more safety tips on traveling to Mexico.

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Many people who live outside of the city, but work in the city were forced to work from home because of the pandemic. Those employees didn’t have to pay the city wage tax for days not worked in the city, and thus were entitled to a refund.

Cut to 2022 when a lot of people went back to work in the city. But, not everyone and not every day.

Rebecca Lopez Kriss, the Deputy Revenue Commissioner for the City of Philadelphia, talked with NBC10 Responds about changes taxpayers can expect this year when it comes to collecting a wage tax refund.

“I think there is confusion about that. Both on the part of employees and employers,” Lopez Kriss said.

Do You Qualify for City Wage Tax Refund?

Here’s where things get confusing: if you worked a hybrid schedule, sometimes in the city of Philadelphia and sometimes not, you’re not automatically guaranteed eligibility for a city wage tax refund.

The question is: Were you required?

Lopez Kriss explained, “That’s a little bit different than my employer says I may work outside, I may from home two, three days a week and I may come in two days.”

How Do You Get the City Wage Tax Refund?

If you’re hoping to collect a City Wage Tax refund, you’ll need documentation from your employer. The letter must include: the period of time that you would have worked from home, and that needs to corroborate with what you document on your refund petition.

According to the city, the best and fastest way to get your refund is online through the Philadelphia Tax Center.  You’ll need your W2 and the letter from your employer specifically about you. Refunds can take anywhere from six to 12 weeks.

The Philadelphia Revenue Department is launching a “Where’s My Refund” tool in March that will allow you to check the status of your refund at any time.

Contact Clarifi by calling 215-563-5665 or emailing ClarifiTeam@clarifi.org.

Philadelphia 

Basic Systems Repair Program 

Montgomery County, Delaware County

Home Repair Inquiry Form 

New Jersey 

Camden County

Home Improvement Program 

Burlington County

Emergency Home Repair Program 

Delaware 

Wilmington

Homeowner Repair Program 

If you can’t find a link for your location for basic repairs, start by calling your county and ask for housing and/or community development office. Many municipalities also have programs specifically for heating systems. 

Repairs/Modifications for persons with disabilities 

Philadelphia 

Adaptive Modifications Program 

Loans for Renovations 

Philadelphia 

Restore, Repair, Renew (RRR) Initiative 

New Jersey

Home Improvement Program 

Rental Assistance 

Philadelphia 

Rental assistance for low-income households 

Homeowners maintenance manual 

1. Call your servicer- your mortgage company and ask about your options. You’ll need to explain why you’re struggling and if the problem is temporary or permanent. There may be government programs available to help. (HEMAP) (ERMA)
2. Options may include: Refinance, Loan Modification, Repayment Plan
3. Need help? Call a HUD-approved Counseling Agency- listed below OR Call (800) 569-4287 to find a housing counselor near you. Make sure your counselor is HUD approved.

Find Housing Counseling Services here 

Local agencies

Save Your Home: 215-334-4663 

Housing Counseling 

Pennsylvania 

Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency 

South Jersey

Find a Counselor 

Foreclosure Prevention Counselor 

Delaware 

Housing Counseling Agencies 

Fraud & Consumer Prevention & Financial Education 

With dozens of egg options at different prices, including for cage-free, free range and organic, what does it all mean, and is it worth paying more? Consumer Reports helped explain.

“A lot of these terms on egg cartons don’t really have any defined meaning, and if you’re going to pay a premium price for eggs, you want to make sure you’re getting what you think you’re getting,” Consumer Reports editor Trisha Calvo said.

Farm Fresh, Natural and Hormone-Free: These are all labels you can ignore, Calvo said.

“All eggs are from farms, and all eggs are natural, so ‘farm fresh’ and ‘natural’ really have no clear meaning. And, by law, chickens can’t be given hormones. So a carton of eggs that has these claims isn’t really any different from a carton that doesn’t,” she said.

Cage-Free: This term also can be misleading. While it’s true the hens aren’t kept in cages, they can still be kept indoors, often in crowded conditions.

Free Range: This label also is dubious, Calvo said.

“Free range birds aren’t kept in cages, and they do have outdoor access, but they can still be raised in crowded conditions, and the outdoor area can be very tiny,” she said.

Organic: If eggs have an organic seal, it means the eggs were laid by hens that were fed grains grown without most synthetic pesticides or GMOs. The birds cannot be raised in cages and must have outdoor access — though that could still mean confined conditions in a building with just a small concrete porch.

Pasture Raised: This term on its own isn’t meaningful. But if it’s paired with the certified humane label, you can be sure the chickens had access to a pasture with space to peck for seeds and bugs.

Bottom line: If it’s important to you to buy pasture-raised eggs, be prepared to pay more — likely well over $5 per dozen.