I want to express my gratitude to folks in the Middlebury community, especially to Hannaford and the Middlebury Policy Department, who caught on that my mother was being scammed and then contacted me. Keep your eyes out for scams involving gift card purchases — my mother was buying gift cards, then sitting in her car and texting pictures of the back of the gift cards with the codes exposed to her scammer, who was promising to deposit thousands of dollars into her bank account. 

Hannaford’s caught on first. After they cut her off, she bought gift cards at Kinney and Walgreens before the police department was able to alert me to the scheme. It’s highly unlikely she’ll get her money back, but at least she won’t lose more. 

Living in a small community where people are connected means a lot! It could have been much worse.

Pam Marsh

New Haven