Has your relative been scammed?

[fidler4]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyounge1956 My mom got a phone call recently from someone who claimed to be working for Microsoft, and offering to help her with her computer problems. Fortunately, some of my distrust of people who call on the phone has rubbed off on her, and she didn't him give any information. I imagine what the guy was after was to get into her computer and possibly get enough info for identity theft, or to get her credit card number to pay for "technical assistance".

My brother-in-laws mom got a similar call. The guy told her that her computer was infected with viruses and he needed to remove them from her computer. She gave him her credit card number and email. He charged her $160 and it sounds like he remoted into her computer. Luckily she told us about it so I had her cancel her credit card and we reset her computer back to its original configuration. It was a new computer that she just used to check her email and play games on. Luckily she doesn't do online banking. The CC company cancelled the charge so she wasn't out any money.

[growing_older]

Quote:

Originally Posted by kyounge1956 My mom got a phone call recently from someone who claimed to be working for Microsoft, and offering to help her with her computer problems. Fortunately, some of my distrust of people who call on the phone has rubbed off on her, and she didn't him give any information. I imagine what the guy was after was to get into her computer and possibly get enough info for identity theft, or to get her credit card number to pay for "technical assistance".

I've gotten a similar call. The caller was incredulous when I told him I wasn't interested. I don't know if that's part of the script, if they really are successful such a high percentage of the time that refusal is unusual, or I'm on a list of super suckers from which they almost always get their way. I wish there was more I could do to identify such callers and stop their future efforts.

[tryan]

My friends grandfather got the "your grandson's in jail and needs bail money" call. Thankfully he called is son (my friends father) and the problem resolved itself.

Posted on another thread ... my tenant fell for the "here's a check now wire some of it back" scam. They will ask for less than 5k because banks can "sit" on a 5k credit for 9 business days. But less than 5k has be be posted the next day (even if the check will bounce). In this case she was told she was employed by Walmart to check and grade stores. Her first "paycheck" was for too much ... hence " you need to wire some back now, now, now". The scammers then called her from a resort where they were partying with her money.

But it gets BETTER ... the bank believed she in on the scam and filed charges against her since her account didn't have the funds to carry the wire. So to avoid fraud charges she agreed to pay them $50/month until the debt was paid in full. Yes the rent was late that month.

[spncity]

According to the US Postal Inspection service, if your relative has been scammed, you may be able to write the loss off as Theft on the tax return.

Here is the info: http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p547.pdf

The theft has to be more than ten percent of income to bother.

Kindest regards.