I have been the victim of the worst scam in my life, and one which I never thought could happen to me.
My 18-year-old daughter is a drug addict. For a number of years I hid from what was right in front of my eyes. I am ashamed of myself, for, had I been willing to face the truth a long time ago I might not be in the position of writing this report today. It has now been about six months since I faced the truth.
A few weeks ago, out of desperation, I decided that I had to put my daughter in rehab. I had just taken a flyer off my windshield, a flyer for a program called The Pilot. I had the flyer in the car with me when I decided to do something. Their statement was, WE HELP YOU NAVIGATE THE DANGEROUS WATERS OF DRUG AND ALCOHOL ADDICTION., and talked about a new program that was different from anything else available. It said that the program was based on the latest research into drug and alcohol addiction and that their results were guaranteed. It said that it was based on 12 step programs, but that there were refinements that made it better than any 12 step program available.
I called the phone number on the flyer. The rehab is in a place called Kuna, in Idaho. I spoke to a really nice woman named Collette who told me that she was working for this program because it had recently saved the life of her son. He had, she said, been to about a dozen other rehabs (I had NO idea that people ever went to that many programs) and this was the ONLY one which did what was promised - get him off drugs so that he could be part of the family and actually get and hold a job. I asked her how long ago he had done the program. She said that he was one of their first patients and had finished the program about a year ago. I figured this was enough time to see if he was going to be OK.
She told me that the program was a 28 day program. I asked about insurance. She told me that they would probably be able to get me reimbursed, but that I would have to pay for the program first. The fee was $35,000. She said that they were really crowded, but that I could reserve a bed by sending them a bank check for the full program fee. I thought that this was a lot, but I didn't care. All I cared about was getting my daughter back. They told me that, if I paid in advance and then could not get her to come to the program I would receive a full refund. They also told me that they would help me talk to my daughter about the program if that would help getting her to arrive. I was concerned about the rehab being so far from home (I live in California) but Collette told me that would be better to send my daughter to a rehab far from home. That made sense to me.
I was in my car. I was desperate. I was not thinking straight. I did not check them out. I drove straight to the bank and bought a bank check for the full amount of the program. The flyer had a post office box address and I went to the post office and mailed the check to them immediately.
When I got home I sat my daughter down and told her that I wanted to help her. I told her that she was going to go to a residential rehab program for 28 days. She became completely distraught and ran out of the house. I immediately called Collette and told her what had happened. She told me that my daughter would be back, but that it might take a couple of days. Well, a week later she had not returned and I had not heard from her. Again I called Collette. I told her that I thought it would be best if they sent my money back to me, as I wasn't sure that I would ever be able to get my daughter to go. Collette was reassuring. She told me that my daughter would definitely return, as soon as she ran out of money and friends. So I decided to keep waiting.
Another week passed and, thankfully, she DID come home. We talked again and again she was upset. This continued for several days. Finally she relented and said that she would go.By this time it had been about three weeks since I had first called Collette and paid the money. I called to talk to Collette to tell her that we were ready. The phone number had been disconnected.
I am ashamed to admit this, but, in all the time that had passed since my first phone call I did not once look for The Pilot on the internet. I did so now and was horrified to find that there was NOT ONE reference to it on Google. So now I had paid $35,000 and all I had was a disconnected phone number and no internet references. I checked the local directories for Kuna and found that there was no rehab called The Pilot within 100 miles of Kuna.
Obviously, I have been scammed. I am truly embarrassed by this, but I think it is more important that I let people know not to fall for the same scam as got me than it is to worry about being embarrassed.
Please don't let this happen to you. I will help my daughter somehow, some way. I don't know how I will. The money that was stolen from me represented just about everything I have, and I don't have enough to pay for a legitimate rehab. But I will. I have enough faith in this country to believe that we will somehow be able to track down these evil people and, perhaps, recover my money. This just all happened over the weekend, so I have not yet had a chance to see what else I can do about this, but I will.
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