7 On Your Side: Woman warns other seniors about scams

MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- A Marin County woman who fell victim to a ruthless scam has begun a speaking tour to warn other seniors -- and you helped make it possible. After 7 On Your Side told her story, donations poured in to help. Now, those funds are helping others too.

It began as a dismal tale of a heartless scam. It's now an uplifting story showing the good guys far outnumber the bad. When Carolyn Collins of San Anselmo lost what little money she had, viewers stepped up to help her. Now she is using that momentum to fight the scammers and protect others.

Her story touched so many hearts. It started when Collins got a shocking call in her room at her senior home. Collins recalls the caller said, "'I'm a policeman. My name is Zach Miller and you are under arrest.'"

The caller said Collins failed to show up for jury duty, so she had to pay $500 or go to jail.

"He was a policeman. I trust policemen," Collins said.

The man told her to withdraw $500 from her bank and load it onto a Green Dot money card. He made her stay on her cellphone while she walked to the bank, then to CVS to buy the MoneyPak.

"And he told me don't tell people why you're taking this money out of the bank," Collins said.

She gave the man the number on the back of the card. The crook used it to steal that $500. Only later did she find out the whole thing was a scam and all her money was gone.

7 On Your Side followed Collins as she told her story to seniors at the San Geronimo Valley Community Center in West Marin.

"The whole problem was, I believed the whole story," Collins told the crowd.

She warns the audience not to fall for schemes and then surprises them with the twist. After the scam, a friend gave her advice. She told the other seniors, "He said, 'You've got to call Michael Finney on 7 On Your Side.'"

Collins just wanted to warn others, so we told her story. It brought an outpouring of sympathy.

At the time, San Jose resident Uma Krishnan said, "I was really moved by what happened to her it should not happen to anyone."

"It really annoyed me. Actually, it angered me," viewer Brian Davino said.

Collins tells her audience the scam hurt, but the result was astonishing.

"The most meaningful was that after KGO presented this story on television, there was a public response and I got my money back... from the public response to this story," Collins tells the audience as she tears up.

Indeed, donations poured in and 7 On Your Side presented Collins with a check for $500. The rest of the money went to Legal Aid of Marin, specifically for presentations like this one.

"To have somebody upfront, to be willing to tell their story, is extremely unique," Paul Cohen from Legal Aid of Marin.

"It's just amazing the amount of many people that are out there trying to scam us older people," West Marin resident Marilyn Halseth said.

"It meant, to me, to be brave and speak up," audience member Brita Ostrom told 7 On Your Side.

"It was great and she got all her money back," Halseth said.

"That's the miracle of today isn't it? That so many people just opened up their pocketbooks," Ostrom said.

"I felt I had touched something somewhere to stop these awful men," Collins said.

We want to thank all the viewers who made these presentations possible and a huge thanks to Legal Aid of Marin for setting up this program and for dealing with all of the donations. The money is not only helping stamp out fraud, it has also given Collins an exciting new purpose.