Transcript
Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection
WRPN News · Mon Aug 10, 2026
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Here's your Daily News Roundup.
Good morning, I'm Wayne Mouser for Civic Media News.
An employee at Zaputo Cheese in Wapan died early Friday morning.
Vandalan County Sheriff's officials say their communications center got an emergency call from an employee at Zaputo Cheese Factory in the town of Alto at 2.09 a.m.
The caller reported a medical emergency following a fellow employee inside the facility.
Lifestar EMS and deputies were dispatched to the scene.
Emergency personnel located a 43-year-old Fond du Lac man who was deceased.
The cause of death remains undetermined, pending the results of an autopsy.
The preliminary investigation indicates the death is likely the result of a medical event that occurred while the man was working.
A 33-year-old north Fond du Lac man suspected of driving while intoxicated was arrested following a slow-speed chase early Sunday morning.
According to Fond du Lac County Sheriff's officials, just before 4 a.m.
a sheriff's deputy spotted a vehicle traveling south on I-41 near Sales Road in the town of El Dorado.
The vehicle was traveling under the 70-mile-an-hour speed limit and weaving between southbound lanes and going off the road.
The deputy activated emergency lights and siren but the driver continued
southbound under the speed limit.
The driver pulled over an I-41 and stopped briefly before continuing south at about 40 miles an hour.
The vehicle exited onto Winnebago Street and went through a stop sign at the end of the off-ramp then turned east on Winnebago Street heading toward North Fond du Lac.
The deputy performed a pit maneuver bringing the pursuit to an end on Winnebago Street near North Pioneer Road.
The driver was the sole occupant of the vehicle and was taken to the Fond du Lac County Jail on a warrant out of Winnebago
He's also facing felony fleeing, suspicion of ODY charges, and traffic citations.
Police in Fond du Lac arrested a 21-year-old man Wednesday morning following a standoff.
Police received information about a domestic abuse situation, including photos of injuries suffered by the victim of an attack.
They went to a residence near the intersection of Salem Avenue and Hickory Street.
Officers confirmed the victim had been removed from the scene.
Then they set up a perimeter around the residence.
The suspect was
in the home with the least one child.
A warrant was obtained for the house and officers took the man into custody without incident.
He was booked into the Fond du Lac County Jail and charges of disorderly conduct and false imprisonment.
The Fond du Lac County Board last month got an update on schematic designs and phased options for the jail.
Bob Nelson has more for Civic Media News.
In June, the board heard a presentation on an assessment of the justice system and bed count for the county jail, along with projections for what will be needed in the future.
Schematic designs will differ because there are two possible sites for the jail.
Fond du Lac County Executive Sam Kaufman says as the
process moves along, the schematic designs will get more detailed.
But due to possible future security risks, they won't be made available to the public.
However, those designs, when they're provided more detail, because the security reasons, as was pointed out by Venture and the Sheriff's Department, they can't be put out there publicly to show the actual detailed designs, because that's a security risk.
Kaufman says there will be public information sessions about a new jail and or justice center before the county board makes any final decisions.
I'm Bob Nelson for Civic Media News.
Bond has been increased to $32,000 cash for a 41 year old Oshkosh woman suspected of selling a fatal dose of methamphetamine.
Jennifer O'Connor recently tested for amphetamines and cocaine.
During a preliminary hearing in Winnebago County Court Thursday, her bond was increased from
$22,000 to $32,000.
She had posted the $22,000 and was out on that bond.
She's charged with felony charges of first-degree reckless homicide, maintaining a drug trafficking place, and possession of methamphetamine.
According to the criminal complaint, charges stemmed from a February 17th death at a Sawyer Street home.
The victim was not named in the complaint.
According to the complaint, police were called to the residence.
The victim was revived with Narcan, but he died later.
finale were found at the home.
O'Connor allegedly admitted to police that she sold drugs to the victim.
The autopsy found the victim died of cocaine and methamphetamine toxicity.
O'Connor will be arraigned on September 14.
Bond has been increased for a 19-year-old Fondalac man suspected in several home invasions in Fondalac this past February.
Bond was originally set at $20,000 cash for Justice Butson, who's charged with three counts of burglary to a building or dwelling, three counts of
disorderly conduct and one count of attempted burglary.
During a hearing in Fondleland County Court on Thursday, his bond was increased to $30,000 cash and several no-contact provisions were added to his bond conditions.
According to police surveillance, it shows Butson wearing a mask that looked like it was from the movie The Purge and a shower cap when he broke into the homes.
Investigators found the mask and a kitchen knife hidden at Butson's home.
According to the criminal complaint, he allegedly admitted to the crimes telling
detectives he was drunk and has long-term mental health issues.
Butson lived in the 1600 block of Primrose Lane, the same block where the first home invasion was reported.
He's currently being held in the Fond du Lac County Jail.
I'm Wayne Mauser for Civic Media News.
For Civic Media News, I'm Chris Morrow.
Green Bay City Clerk is resigning after duplicate absentee ballots were mailed before the April election in this month's primary.
The city says Sillistine Jeffries chose to step down but didn't provide more details.
State election officials still looking into how the duplicate ballots were sent.
The city says no outside vendor was involved and new safeguards are now in place tomorrow, of course, primary election day.
Find your polling place and see your ballot
at myvote.wy.gov.
Madison's police civilian oversight board wants an independent review of an encounter between police and the city's interim independent police monitor, Arameek Glass, and police.
They had an encounter while officers were trying to clear an encampment near Williamson and Baldwin streets last week.
The committee noted that Glass was trying to fulfill her duties and was injured during the encounter.
Online footage shows that Glass had a broken hand leading to the Madison Police Department to release their own video to ensure
Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Cole is joining a lawsuit to block the federal government from getting personal data from millions of welfare recipients.
The case challenges a new rule that could let the government share information like social security numbers, addresses, and immigration status with other agencies.
Supporters say that rule would help prevent fraud, but the Attorney General's behind the lawsuit say it goes too far and threatens sensitive information.
A Wisconsin man advocating for disability rights in Madison, Carl Scholesi traveled for 11 days by wheelchair from his Fox Crossing home to the state capitol, highlighting the importance of Medicaid for people with disabilities.
He wants to bring more attention to Medicaid cuts made by Congress and called for bipartisan support to expand the health care program.
And that's your state news, Chris Morrill for Civic Media News.
The Brewers head west.
Hi, I'm Mike Clemens with sports.
The first place Brewers are in San Diego tonight, opening a series against the Padres.
Then it's on to LA to take on the Dodgers.
The Brewers winning another thriller yesterday in Milwaukee, four to three in extra innings over the Twins, manager Pat Murphy.
NFL, the Packers are up to full strength with Josh Jacobs, March on Lloyd, and now Chris Brooks at running back.
I asked Brooks back from a hamstring injury, what will be his focus?
I think really daily just finding one thing to work on and just dialing that in.
When I'm focusing on that, I think each day that just gets better
and tributes pouring in for Hall of Fame head coach Don Nelson, who led the Milwaukee Bucks to seven straight division titles.
Nelly was 86 years old.
with sports on Mike Clemens.
It is going to be mostly sunny with a high in the low to mid 80s today.
Tonight partly cloudy, a shower or two possible with a low into the low to mid 60s tomorrow.
Scattered showers and thunderstorms, otherwise partly to mostly cloudy in the upper 70s to low 80s.
I'm meteorologist Sean Cable.
That's your ripping news roundup from WRPN, the music you grew up with.
Find more news anytime at wrpn.fm.
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Joining us this morning, we have Michelle Reinen, who is the administrator for the state's division of trade and consumer protection.
Good morning.
Always something new to talk about in the world of scams and frauds, I guess.
But we've got a couple of different subjects that we're going to ask Michelle to fill us in on.
And scammers.
or those who commit fraud use all kinds of tools, including video I guess now as bank imposters.
How are they using this tool?
Yeah, it's quite amazing what they have turned to and how they get us to respond to their requests and really manipulate our thought processes.
So we know that scammers claim that they are different entities and in this
situation, they're claiming to be someone who will assist you.
They call consumers and say that their suspicious activity on their bank account or their credit card.
Something that's really going to get us to react and respond.
These are often cold calls, but they can be text messages.
And what happens is that they provide a phone number for the consumer to call.
if it's in a text message.
So in both cases, they connect with the scammer who says that they need to verify the consumer's identity.
But the new twist here is now the scammers switch the conversation from a traditional phone call to a video call.
So think FaceTime for the iPhones or Google Meets for an Android phone.
And once that video calls begun, that scammer, who is pretending to be that representative from that financial institution, asked the consumer to point the camera at their computer screen while they log into the online account
or they ask for a screen share on a cell phone or a smartphone.
And both of these let the scammers see the consumer's private login details and possibly other real-time information like a response to a security question or bank account numbers.
You know because of everything that's happening and how quickly this moves a consumer may not even realize that they're exposing that information because they think they're getting help from a Legitimate representative from that financial institution
Wow, okay So video is just another tool, but did they also think that this is going to give them an air of authenticity going video
or
Well, just the fact that they are calling saying suspicious activity representing themselves from the bank that they're there to help you and yeah, there's this new method to help you through it and walk you through all of that's gonna and let lend itself to that legitimacy that authenticity that trust factor that consumers are seeking so we really hope that
Consumers can avoid it even though they trust that a video call is supposed to be secure in its method of providing that private information.
So try to avoid anyone who calls you and represents that their financial institution asking for that video call or for your information.
And remember that if a credit card company calls to indicate that there's fraud on your account, they're asking you to
Verify a purchase and they're not asking for your private information here There's a big difference with that credit card company trying to stop fraud and you handing over that information that that company should already have if they're talking to you as their customer
Yeah, it seems it seems like most people would see through that but I guess you know people do fall for it so
So the background behind them is somebody's basement or storage unit might be questionable, right?
So, you know.
Okay, moving on, unclaimed life insurance scams always was looking for an error that left me some money, right?
but
yeah wouldn't that be great that or the big lottery either one but we know that consumers are receiving letters in the mail about unclaimed life insurance money and this is happening nationwide as well as in wisconsin because we received reports of it back at the end of june um these letters appear to have been sent from law firms and the lawyer says one of their clients has died and the letter recipient is the heir to a life insurance policy
worth millions.
The example in Wisconsin was $4.9 million that that consumer would have received.
The letter explains that they want to split the proceeds between the consumer, some charity organizations, and the law firm.
But the letter that you're receiving is from a scammer.
It's not a real law firm, and the life insurance policy doesn't really exist.
But it does sound very convincing because it sounds like the
has been trying to contact family members and finding no close relatives and so you are there to inherit this fortune.
Consumers might be tempted to reply to this because what's the worst that can happen is...
what they don't get their money, but really the worst thing is is that the consumer could hand over again that personal information, that financial information, like a social security number and a bank account number, as part of going through the process to verify whether or not you are the heir to receive this information.
So you want to be sure that you are keeping that information confidential.
You should be able to ask questions like who the individual is, this family member, so you can verify that
information and avoid, you know, those 100% risk-free transactions and in conformity with statutory law statements from convincing you that this could be legitimate.
And check and see if they actually died, right?
You can look for typos in the letter because we've seen typos in these letters.
We've seen where the postmark is out of Georgia, but yet it's coming from a Canadian law firm.
So what's that about?
And verify the law firm.
Look at the bar association for the state or the country that they're from.
In this case, again, at a Canadian law firm.
So check the Canadian bar association for the attorney and the law firm to see if they're legitimate.
And when the consumer did that, found out that neither one of them was legitimate.
If it's Dewey, Cheetham, and Howe, you know that it's questionable, so, right?
All right, workers' compensation fraud.
I'm kind of curious about this.
How does this work?
Yeah, this is coming out of our partner agency the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and they've alerted consumers about the possible multi-state fraud scheme that is targeting injured workers fraudsters are trying to trick people into participating in fake workers compensation hearings and this is leading these injured workers to believe that they've been awarded money, but they're now going to be responsible for paying fees and other
costs to finalize the case.
We know that the scam is primarily targeting Spanish-speaking workers, but anyone can be a target of this.
And it claims to come from fake agencies, names like the Workers' Compensation Board.
The messages usually arrive as an email from domain names as atworkcomp.org.
court.org, but the consumers are told to attend an online hearing using a video call platform, and this fake hearing involves a judge, a bailiff, and an attorney, so it looks incredibly convincing.
Again, always verify things.
The Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Division schedules hearings only through written letter, and all phone numbers that you use to call workforce development will have a Wisconsin area code.
So a couple of things that you can really look for if you are an injured worker and need to navigate this space.
All good advice.
Thank you very much, Michelle, for visiting with us today.
talking with Michelle Reinand, who is the state's administrator for the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection.
Joining us this morning, we have Michelle Reinen, who is the administrator for the state's division of trade and consumer protection.
Good morning.
Always something new to talk about in the world of scams and frauds, I guess.
But we've got a couple of different subjects that we're going to ask Michelle to fill us in on.
And scammers.
or those who commit fraud use all kinds of tools, including video I guess now as bank imposters.
How are they using this tool?
Yeah, it's quite amazing what they have turned to and how they get us to respond to their requests and really manipulate our thought processes.
So we know that scammers claim that they are different entities and in this
situation they're claiming to be someone who will assist you.
They call consumers and say that their suspicious activity on their bank account or their credit card.
Something that's really going to get us to react and respond.
These are often cold calls but they can be text messages and what happens is that they provide a phone number for the consumer to call.
if it's in a text message.
So in both cases, they connect with the scammer who says that they need to verify the consumer's identity.
But the new twist here is now the scammers switch the conversation from a traditional phone call to a video call.
So think FaceTime for the iPhones or Google Meets for an Android phone.
And once that video calls begun, that scammer, who is pretending to be that representative from that financial institution, asked the consumer to point the camera at their computer screen while they log into the online account
or they ask for a screen share on a cell phone or a smartphone.
And both of these let the scammers see the consumer's private login details and possibly other real-time information like a response to a security question or bank account numbers.
You know because of everything that's happening and how quickly this moves a consumer may not even realize that they're exposing that information because they think they're getting help from a Legitimate representative from that financial institution
Wow, okay So video is just another tool, but did they also think that this is going to give them an air of authenticity going video
or
Well, just the fact that they are calling saying suspicious activity representing themselves from the bank that they're there to help you and yeah, there's this new method to help you through it and walk you through all of that's gonna and let lend itself to that legitimacy that authenticity that trust factor that consumers are seeking so we really hope that
Consumers can avoid it even though they trust that a video call is supposed to be secure in its method of providing that private information.
So try to avoid anyone who calls you and represents that their financial institution asking for that video call or for your information.
And remember that if a credit card company calls to indicate that there's fraud on your account, they're asking you to
Verify a purchase and they're not asking for your private information here There's a big difference with that credit card company trying to stop fraud and you handing over that information that that company should already have if they're talking to you as their customer
Yeah, it seems it seems like most people would see through that but I guess you know people do fall for it so
and
So the background behind them is so somebody's basement or a storage unit might be questionable, right?
So, you know,
Okay, moving on.
Unclaimed life insurance scams.
Always was looking for an error that left me some money, right?
but
yeah wouldn't that be great that or the big lottery either one but we know that consumers are receiving letters in the mail about unclaimed life insurance money and this is happening nationwide as well as in wisconsin because we received reports of it back at the end of june um these letters appear to have been sent from law firms and the lawyer says one of their clients has died and the letter recipient is the heir to a life insurance policy
worth millions.
The example in Wisconsin was $4.9 million that that consumer would have received.
The letter explains that they want to split the proceeds between the consumer, some charity organizations, and the law firm.
But the letter that you're receiving is from a scammer.
It's not a real law firm, and the life insurance policy doesn't really exist, but it does sound very convincing because it sounds like the
has been trying to contact family members and finding no close relatives and so you are there to inherit this fortune.
Consumers might be tempted to reply to this because what's the worst that can happen is...
what they don't get their money, but really the worst thing is is that the consumer could hand over again that personal information, that financial information, like a social security number and a bank account number, as part of going through the process to verify whether or not you are the heir to receive this information.
So you want to be sure that you are keeping that information confidential.
You should be able to ask questions like who the individual is, this family member, so you can verify that
information and avoid, you know, those 100% risk-free transactions and in conformity with statutory law statements from convincing you that this could be legitimate.
And check and see if they actually died, right?
So what's
And, you know, verify the law firm.
Look at the bar association for the state or the country that they're from.
In this case, again, in a Canadian law firm.
So check the Canadian Bar Association for the attorney and the law firm to see if they're
legitimate, and when the consumer did that, found out that neither one of them was legitimate.
If it's Dewey Cheatham and how, you know that it's questionable, so, right?
All right, workers' compensation fraud.
I'm kind of curious about this.
How does this work?
Yeah, this is coming out of our partner agency the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and they've alerted consumers about the possible multi-state fraud scheme that is targeting injured workers fraudsters are trying to trick people into participating in fake workers compensation hearings and this is leading these injured workers to believe that they've been awarded money, but they're now going to be responsible for paying fees and other
costs to finalize the case.
We know that the scam is primarily targeting Spanish-speaking workers, but anyone can be a target of this, and it claims to come from fake agencies, names like the Workers' Compensation Board.
The messages usually arrive as an email from domainnamesasatworkcourt.org, but the consumers are told to attend an online hearing using a video call platform, and this fake hearing involves a judge, a bailiff, and an attorney, so it looks incredibly convincing.
Again, always verify things.
The Wisconsin Workers' Compensation Division schedules hearings only through written letter.
And all phone numbers that you use to call workforce development will have a Wisconsin area code.
So a couple of things that you can really look for if you are an injured worker and need to navigate this space.
All good advice.
Thank you very much, Michelle, for visiting with us today.
talking with Michelle Reinand, who is the state's administrator for the Division of Trade and Consumer Protection.