At a time when seniors should be enjoying retirement, scammers target their hard-earned savings and prey on their vulnerabilities.
“A lot of older adults are lonely. They’re isolated at home. Maybe their friends have moved away or passed away. Their children aren’t close, and they’re lonely,” community engagement director for non-profit Age Well Middle Tennessee, Paula Daigle, told News 2. “So if someone calls, they answer the phone and (scammers) try to befriend them.”
*****
Lisa's mother is bad about shit like this. It's not that my in-laws are lonely, it's that they're way too trusting. If an email looks official, then by God it must be. At least once every couple weeks, we'll get a call from Sue. "I just got an email saying they're going to shut off our Netflix/Hulu/whatever if we don't pay right now!"
"Did you pay your bill this month?"
"Yes, it's on autopay."
"Ignore the email, Mom."
"But....."
"Ignore the email."
It took a while, but now they call us any time they get an email or phone call that wants any kind of personal or financial information.
Yeah, I got an 80 year old mother who has some wagonburner foundation sending her begging mail at least 3 times a week. She used to donate, regularly but now she's a widow on a fixed income so, the hatchet-packin dog-eatin beggars are just gonna have to make do on the tax dollars they fleece from our government every month. They REFUSE to leave her alone to the point I'm starting to not feel so bad about Sandy creek and Wounded Knee.
ReplyDeleteThat whole 'trusting' thing is a holdover from the halcyon days when everyone left their doors unlocked, the keys in the car and the kids' bikes scattered all over the front lawn. Things that seem inconceivable today. In my hometown, all it took was one black family moving in on the edge of town and everything changed, seemingly overnight.
ReplyDeleteBrokerage firms like Fidelity allow you to designate a "trusted contact" they can call if they suspect you've fallen for a scam. It's too bad banks don't have the same thing. My bank doesn't, anyway. The victim is much more likely to withdraw money from a bank than a brokerage.
ReplyDeleteI thank God my 90 year old Mom never showed the slightest interest in computers. It was hard enough helping her wade thru the BS on Faux Nooz every day when I got home from work. At least she missed the covid scamdemic, Biden and that Emhoff bimbo.
ReplyDelete- WDS
I guess I must be an aging parent. My son writes code for a big credit company and is involved in cybersecurity and I go over all this stuff with him. There are an unbelievable number of scams.
ReplyDeleteA big scam up here in NY is an email or text purportedly from EZ Pass (electronic toll collection) that says your vehicle went through a toll booth without it registering, and you can pay the $3.86 toll by clicking the link below. That takes you to a website that looks official,and after they get your Credit Card info, they go on a wild spending spree.
ReplyDeleteI once got a parking ticket written for my Volkswagen from the City of South Lake Tahoe. It was easily solved when I called and explained that I hadn't been through South Lake Tahoe in over 20 years and that my VW was a KW, as in Kenworth.
DeleteI got a chuckle out of that one.
Elmo, I'm glad you got that cleared up. I admit I was crestfallen a bit upon reading you drove a VD.
DeleteMy bride owned a '69 Bug (still does) that she bought when she was going to U.C. Berkeley. After we got married I took a razor blade, removed the Sierra Club sticker she had in the back window and replaced it with an Associated California Loggers sticker.
DeleteIt took her a while to notice, but when she did I just looked at her and smiled.
We're still married, 37 years later.
Easy tell: if the email claiming to be from company 'X' has 'Y' in the "from" line, it's fraudulent.
DeleteExample: Costco_Membership.
Obviously not Costco.
Get shit like this all the time.
My ex MIL got scammed for something like $20,000. This was after I was divorced from her daughter, but like you said she was just too trusting. Like the scammers count on, she was too embarrassed to say anything to her kids until later.
ReplyDeletetry purchasing a new car - speaking of scammers, the salesperson, their supervisor, the finance person - the entire setup is a scam
ReplyDeleteI'm a Senior, and I prevent getting scammed by screening my phone calls (if I don't recognize the number I don't pick up - and they NEVER leave a message) and regarding e-mails I'm mighty quick on the 'delete' option.
ReplyDeleteThat's not to say I'm bulletproof. I once had a couple of expensive Door Dash charges show up on my bank statement but those were quickly solved with a call to the bank and the issuance of a new credit card.
Be careful. It's a jungle out there and the scammers are everywhere.
We are old enough to be in the danger zone. I have fortunately convinced my wife that anybody who REALLY wants money will send us a letter by mail, so just ignore all emails and texts. The one we do have a problem with is The National Wildlife Federation. We (seriously) get at least three "begging letters" as the British call them, per week. I finally got through to my wife on that one, by noting that they wouldn't need so much money if they didn't spend so much sending us these pleas for money.
ReplyDeleteAfter doctor visits I get dozens of phone calls offering free pain pills, back and knee braces, diabetes supplies, you name it. Nothing they offer ever has anything to do with reason for Dr. visit. Last scammer argued. "What do you mean you don't need (whatever)? I have your medical records right in front of me." He had the doctors details correct. Tried getting Medicare involved. Medicare is swamped with multimillion dollar scams. My concerns are insignificant to them.
ReplyDeleteMy dad (rip) wasn't 'too trusting'. He just thought he was more clever than the scammers. Pissed us kids off to no end.
ReplyDeleteMy older brother became legal guardian and it was damn near a full time job going thru all the crap my dad had bought into.
(Ex. A web page, and he never used a computer!)
-lg
In retirement my parents were pulling in $12k/mo. Dad paid big money buying worthless crap. After his passing, I found where he had paid over $60k for coins from some mint. I showed mom. Mom didn't even know. She took them in for appraisal. Worthless, zilch, zero value. Not even a crap value. They were made of plastic with a thin shiny metal coating.
DeleteAnother scam to watch out for: fake "Publishers Clearing House" scammers. It is amazing how magical those words are to older folks. I have known THREE older ladies who either GOT scammed out of a lot of money or were saved by friends/relatives from being scammed. Somehow these scammers convince them to pay large sums of money for the delivery of the "prize". No fault of PCH itself.
ReplyDeleteNed
A PCH scammer called me awhile back. When he asked for my address I knew it wasn't on the up and up. Kept the crook on the phone for almost an hour. Eventually he got frustrated enough to hang up. I like to think I saved one or two widows a lot of grief. :-)
DeleteI had one on the line for almost 45 minutes last weekend, had him hang up until he told me he was going to need me to keep him on the line while I hiked over to Wally world to buy the money pack card for 999.12$ to pay the left over taxes on my prize. I lost ir when he got frustrated over my walking rather than driving. Told him I can't drive anymore, since everything looks like a sidewalk now. Figure that's 45 minutes he isn't being a scammer to someone who believes him.
Deleteelderly AND us yungns!
ReplyDeletesome fucker almost got my wife for 1500 on a phone scam about arresting me for not showing up for jury duty or some such horseshit! she thought she was saving my ass so she had everything ready to transfer via some cash app but luckily called me first.
all scammers should die!
I did a post about that scam just yesterday.
Deletehttps://ogdaa.blogspot.com/2024/10/people-actually-fall-for-this.html
In Canada most scammers operate out of Quebec. In ye old retard province its only illegal to scam someone in Quebec. If the scammers are going after people in other provinces or the US the quebec cops leave them alone i automatically ignore calls from quebec
DeleteExile1981
saw that one too ken, lotta rotten mfrs out there!
DeleteI'm 82 so I guess I fit into the "aging & likely to be scammed" category. However, I'm a critical thinking, dementia free (so far) sadistic, manipulative nasty motherfucker who has no use for get rich quick schemes. Ergo, I love to tell anyone who proposes a too good to be true plan to shove it up their mother’s ass.
ReplyDeleteOne trick I've heard is to use Google Translate's speech mode to insult the scammers in their native language. "I bet your mother is ashamed you work for scammers" in Hindi or Tamil gets their attention and usually spins them right up.
DeleteHey bogside, want to go out drinking sometime?
DeleteMad Jack
The three of us. At least.
DeleteI have a friend in his 50s with a deep voice. He will every now and then, for fun, pick up an unknown number call. After listening to the greeting he speaks in a deep, breathy voice saying, “Okay, that’s the code they told me to wait for. I got the bodies all wrapped in tarps. Where do I bring them?” The caller can’t hang up fast enough.
ReplyDeleteI've been known to interrupt a scammer with "Excuse me for a second," then take the phone and a 22LR pistol out to the back porch, hold the phone near the muzzle, and crank off 3-4 rounds after yelling, "I told you to stay off my fucking property!"
DeleteI am an old guy. My phone only rings for people in my contact list. All others are silent without vibration. I may see the phone light up but without the ringtone I just ignore it. The doctors and other trusted companies are told to text me. Email is a bit tougher.
ReplyDeleteAn jeet phoned me and said my Apple puter was virused up, I played super stoopid and kept him on the blower for nearly 45 mins before I said my puter was Windows and that he can go fuck his self! That shitskin went on for another 10 throwing insults while I puttered around. This fucking dirt worshiper never considered that the more time he spent with me was less time to scam others!
ReplyDeleteChutes Magoo
Please stay on the line while I get my credit card...*goes fishing*
DeleteMy ex's mom was like that with any mail from a animal protection group, peta kinda groups. She would read that mail then send them a check.. I showed her some pictures of what they actually do to those animals and those checks stopped..
ReplyDeleteJD
My 94 year old parents are exactly like that, trusting and wanting to help everyone. They are clearly on a "suckers" list and are constantly being bombarded. Got a call this summer from them panicking that they needed their social security numbers. Why? We've given them all the other information but they need our SS# to give us 30% more social security benefits. Another time it was that they won a car and needed to pay $300 for delivery fees. Lately it has been unsolicited offers to purchase property at 10% of value. Just sign the letter in the back and we will take care of everything else for you... I hope every one of those effers burn in Hell.
ReplyDeleteI was watchin Bonanza. The father left home to prove he was still a cowboy. He hired on as a cowpoke and was busting bronco's. He got on a horse and was immediatly thrown to the ground. My father said, Ho, ho boy you are to old for that! I looked at my father and realized he really thought Loren Green had been riding the horse. That's the first time I realized my father thought what he saw on tv was true.
ReplyDeleteMy great grandmother told me once that she used to like Clint Eastwood until he went bad. It took me a minute to realize that she thought his characters were real.
DeleteI met Clint several times when he was mayor of Carmel. A very likeable and genuine fellow. I asked him if anyone thinks he is the characters he plays.
DeleteHe rolled his eyes, smiled, and said quite often. He's been called all sorts of names, told to eff off, and even challenged to fight.
That's funny, I don't ever recall my great grandma mentioning visiting Carmel.
DeleteI graduated HS in 1970. One poor soul on the wrestling team had a grandmother from Hungary (or someplace) and used to watch Big Time Wrestling on TV (the precursor to WWE). They had the Iron Sheik, Haystacks Calhoun, Dick the Bruiser... anyway, she thought the whole thing was real. Then she found out that her grandson was on the wrestling team. She never really did get over it.
DeleteI got one of those scammer text messages last week. The scammer said "How have you been?" I answered it "Not great, it really burns when I pee." Five minutes later I get "This is Ellen. Do you remember me?" I said "Not really, but I've been drunk a lot lately. You should really see a doctor and get checked out if we bumped uglies." I didn't hear back from the scammer.
ReplyDeleteMy wife loves dealing with telemarketers, and she has made it her mission in life to waste as much of the scammers' time as possible. Her personal best was 64 minutes.
ReplyDeleteMy last job was on a computer center help desk at a liberal arts college. The level of entitled ignorance I had to deal with was astounding. One teacher called and said she just got a call that her daughter was injured on a trip to Europe and needed money for hospital care. When asked where the daughter was, teacher said she was sitting at the kitchen table with her. I advised her to not pay the money. Oh, and I did once get a legit "My Word document disappeared from the screen" call. Yes, it was a power failure.
Filed under 'Why I drink' there were the internet newbs who forward email hoaxes, thinking they're doing a public service. I would carefully deconstruct the email, point out the errors and direct the user to appropriate hoax avoidance sites. One day, I got a repeat of something I'd already debunked from someone who sent these in all the time, and I was not in the mood. My reply was as follows:
"Hoax. No points this round, thanks for playing." This user never got fooled again, and became an ally in their department in the fight against scams and hoaxes.
Stay safe
My employer (big defense contractor) performs regular spearphishing exercises as practice and training for us cube dwellers, and they ALWAYS hook the same handful of dimbulbs. And no, the dimbulbs aren't trolling the cybersecurity department. They are legitimately falling, again and again, for the same ridiculous ploys. College-overeducated dorks, all. Dumb as a box of rocks.
ReplyDeleteThey target them for this reason. We moved my FIL in at the start of scamdemic, he's 94 this year. He watches the TV non stop and reads everything. The ads and scams work on him every damn time. Anything from a postcard in the mail that says "we buy houses" to an ad in the farmers almanac to take herbs instead of heart meds. He has already gotten into some minor jams mostly because he's tight and will not part with money. Luckily, but he gets my wife to make all these stupid inquiries just to prove to him its a rip off or a scam.
ReplyDeleteHow to guarantee the scammers never call again:
ReplyDelete1. Find out exactly which shit hole city they live in.
2. Locate some very broke and desperate assholes in the same shithole.
3. Offer five grand to the first one who can exterminate at least five scammers by any means.
4. Offer $200 for each one afterwards.
5. All exterminations must be verified.
If they can commit crimes from another country with impunity, then planning their demise from another country can be done with impunity.