There is nothing that irritates me more than anything than to see when an elderly person has been taken advantage of and was scammed. My mother was on her home phone the other day and whom ever she was talking to was asking her to verify her social security number over the phone; Oh No, not while I am sitting there. I asked for the phone and asked the man on the the other line, "You tell me my social security number and I will let you know if it is correct or not." To make a long story short, he hung up on me. I am just so sick and tired of seeing people getting scammed, when they are not realizing that it is happening to them.
This is a huge problem with scams targeting older people. I have seen so many stories online and television of old people being taken for thousands of dollars. A lot of these scam artists reside in foreign countries. They use the postal service to send out mass mail to people around the world and typically get a decent reply from the bunch. Out of those replies, they make their money from scamming the people into buying their nonexistent services.
Elderly folks are easy prey for scammers because they don't regularly 'update' all they know about scammers or the strategies they use to rip off unsuspecting people. Since they are always changing their strategies, the only way for old people to avoid getting scammed is to join forums like this one and ask questions before they decide to buy something.
Just recently, my elderly uncle wanted to get a new phone and asked me to accompany him to shop around for one, as he was worried about getting talked into buying something that he didn't want. So we went around to the various phone companies looking at what they had on offer. My uncle didn't want a smartphone but just an ordinary mobile phone with big buttons. And we found just the perfect one for him, but then we also had to find out that these types of phones cost considerably more than standard smartphones. So why is that? Why would a phone with no other features than the ability to call in and out, cost almost a third more than one with every conceivable application? Although we didn't buy a so called "senior's phone" in the end, my uncle felt really ripped off.
Actually I can't figure out why such phones can be so expensive. Looking through an electronic store online I saw that a Nokia 1110 was selling at $88 bucks which is way to expensive since the phone has hardly any features worth talking about. Maybe they have some 'vintage value?'
I have seen old people being scammed due to their diminished faculties and failing sight. A common scam involves mobile money transfer. You find an old person wanting to check the balance of cash in their account. They do request for assistance and are asked to give their PIN number. If the person is untrustworthy, they can transfer some cash to their account.
I think the scariest one I heard about was one that tried to pretend it was with a church. They would send pamphlets to her house for tithing and prayer money. She gave them her savings in the hopes that fortune would come back to her. It was only after everything was gone that her family found out she'd been swindled. They found the thief but they never recovered the money.
It's sad that so many older folks are being fleeced out of their life savings. Many of them have been contacted and told that they had won money and they should send money as a fee to collect the winnings. Some have been warned by relatives not to go ahead and send the money but they ignore the warnings because they are hoping that the deal is legitimate so they would acquire a fortune. This is one of the means through which they are being scammed but there are also other means through which it's done. At last, there is cooperation between the US and some countries where the scamming sources are from to bring the culprits to justice.
My 90 year old mother loves to answer the phone and I have to remind her to not give out any personal information. Not anything about her health or names of her grandchildren or certainly not any numbers. It's terrible, those who prey on the elderly.
Terrific atribble73 job well done!! You protected your Mom and saved her from thieves who have no conscience or soul. They'll hurt not only the elderly, but anyone and they'll use even the dead's names...I know for there is someone using my Dad's name, who passed in 2008. I was looking for my Grandparents names at the library's internet computers and up popped my Dad's name and the person was from Zimbabwe, Africa...we have no relatives from Africa and legally you'd have your Dad's name and be the second and be a son, my Dad only had a daughter me! But my Dad's gone and I can't ask him about it. So far there is nothing the person has tried to do anything to us, but he uses my Dad's name. One last thing if you're being scammed online always know to report it to ic3.gov, bbb.org and police too. If you've been victimized with any kind of id theft please go to ftc.gov for more information and help & report it to them too aside of the police. Keep a log of incidents and who you reported it to with all the report numbers. Check you internet accounts login places too from time to time. Work with site's security to stop the culprits and to protect your accounts too. Stay safe!
As my parents get older I do worry about them getting scammed with cold calls and calling them back, or people knocking on the door. Recently someone did do just that and wanted money upfront for a job, and I said no. He kept coming back at all hours asking for cash for materials for a job on the house. After lots of texting I agreed to pay the materials but only if I did it myself on behalf of my parents. It's hard for them to think people will try to scam them, but you see all the warnings, yet they don't think it can happen to them.
That;s what I'm talking about, I'm young. I remember when I was 19 years old, this man called me from India I believe, and the number was a scam number listed on the internet but I never looked it up until I kept getting calls from the people. They told me I got approved for a $2,000 dollar car loan that I never even applied for, but I needed to verify my social security number. After I gave it to them, they hung up and I never heard from them again. It doesn't seem like anything happened from it, but now I don't give out personal information on the phone, and if I don't have any dealings with the company, and I can't verify them instantly, they get the click.
There are things you should not buy online in the net, and there are very shady-looking sites you should not buy from. And you probably have dozens of reputable sites in your mental online shopping database, but every so often you will come across an unbelievable deal on a site you have never heard of. Maybe the site will seem legit, but often it won not. Most of us have good enough radar that we immediately know a bad place when we see one.
I think old aged people are their easy targets. What we can do is to educate them about these traps and let them be aware of this. In case of a scam call let them be prepared to face it or just disconnect in case of a doubt. Scams are on an abnormal rise in our country too and both young and old aged people are being trapped every other day. Even bank officials end up giving their OTP to the scammers and losing a lot of money to them. Then just think of ordinary citizens or old aged people! Scammers are well trained to trap people and they seem so genuine. You can’t even identify them through caller ids as technology has advanced a lot and these scammers are taking advantage of technology. We should be alert and keep ourselves updated and also let our loved ones informed.