For the last 4 ½ years, Jeanette Voss was forced to live a frugal life.
The 71-year-old Bennington woman rationed car trips so she didn’t run out of gas. She unplugged the coffee maker after brewing her morning pot to save electricity. And she checked her bank account balance each and every day, in part to track her spending — but also to be sure no one had managed to steal her money, again.
Voss is among the hundreds of Vermonters who collectively lose millions of dollars to cyber fraud each year. Older adults are most frequently targeted because they have the most assets to plunder. In Voss’ case, Seven Days previously reported that scammers made off with her entire life savings — $950,000 — leaving her to subsist on Social Security checks and food stamps.
The scam became a yearslong nightmare. Voss felt ashamed and embarrassed; decades of planning for a comfortable retirement had gone to waste. She had to fight tax bills and cope with lingering paranoia. She couldn’t afford to visit friends or family out of state. Her golden years largely became confined to her small house at the end of a dead-end street.
Then, late last month, Voss performed her daily review of her meager bank account balance.
This time, a seven-figure sum appeared.
United States Secret Service agents had managed a rare feat in the shadowy, sophisticated world of cyber crime: They clawed back Voss’ money.
Investigators traced $648,000 of her funds to a cryptocurrency account associated with a man involved in the international scam ring, court records show. After seizing the crypto wallet, government officials sold the tokens in order to compensate Voss and some of the other 20-plus victims.
Voss recouped her entire loss, plus interest: $1,033,000. When the remittance landed in her bank account on Christmas Eve, Voss could hardly believe it.
“Overnight, my whole life changed,” she said.
Since the crime, Voss has struggled to know who to trust. She even wondered whether the process of obtaining compensation from the government might be another layer of the scam.
Now on stable financial footing, Voss said she plans to fly to California to visit family. She doesn’t worry any longer about unplugging appliances. Sometimes Voss turns on the decorative lamps in her living room, just for fun.
She also splurged on treats for the backyard critters who kept her company during those difficult years.
“I bought some raw peanuts in the shell for the squirrels. That was my big celebration, honestly,” she said. “I really couldn’t think of anything that I needed.”
Voss has recovered more than just her missing funds, she said. She’s finally found peace.
