Megyn Kelly’s family was nearly conned out of $17,000 in an elaborate scam, the journalist revealed on her SiriusXM show.
“The Megyn Kelly Show” recently held “Fraud Week,” which concluded with a personal story from the pundit where she recalled a scam that targeted her mother-in-law, Jackie.
“There are words of caution in this story for everyone,” Kelly warned. “We decided to tell you the story — even though we knew you might mock us a little — because we want to help others and we learned a lot ourselves.”
In 2021, Kelly’s husband Doug Brunt received a call from his mother who was panicked that her daughter Diane and partner Brad were jailed after a supposed drunk-driving car accident in Cape Cod. Jackie had received a call from someone claiming to be Diane, who provided a phone number for a court-appointed lawyer.
Jackie thought that the call she received was from Diane, so she called the number and was told that bail was set at $17,000.
Kelly and her husband attempted to verify the lawyer’s story and transfer money to post bail, however, it became clear that something was off. A family friend went to visit Diane’s home to confirm that she had been arrested, only to find them in the comfort of their own home.
Luckily, no one involved transferred any money to the scammer prior to uncovering the con. Kelly noted that she wanted to share the cautionary tale with her audience in order to prevent other people from falling for this sort of scam.
“What if this happened to your mom or to you? Now you’ll know. If we hadn’t told the story, you might not know. Maybe you would be hoodwinked. I don’t know. It could happen. Trust me,” she said.
“Sadly, there are fraudsters out there working hard every day to steal your money or something precious and most of these never see the light of day,” Kelly continued. “They just happen privately because people are too embarrassed to talk about it. They are humiliated, and I get it. But there is no reason to be humiliated.”
“If you get defrauded by one of these losers — or almost defrauded, in our case — what does it say about you? It says you believe in human nature. You believe in others. You probably have a kind heart. You are probably a trusting soul,” the journalist concluded. “Those are not bad things. But a slightly jaded, trusting soul.”
