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Old 06-13-2016, 11:49 AM   #41
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Originally Posted by samclem View Post
Maybe she enjoys talking to them?

My MIL plays a game where she tries to keep the hustlers on the phone as long as possible...
I think your MIL may be playing a dangerous game. As she gets older and as her cognitive abilities drift off into the ether, she may start making mistakes and over-play her hand in dealing with these hustlers.
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Old 06-13-2016, 12:07 PM   #42
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Back a few years ago, one of our clients who was a lonely widow got tangled up in these. I helped her son, who lived on the other side of the country, with keeping tabs on her account. One thing we were able to spot is small debits, like around $10-20, that indicated she'd been hooked by a new scammer. He closed her local bank account, automated her bills so he could pay online, and changed her phone number a couple of times.

She was bored and lonely, though, so soon enough she'd get hooked again.
He also changed her mailing address to some kind of mail forwarding service that would go through it and toss the solicitations before sending the real mail to her at home.

It was frustrating and she would get mad at me for monitoring her accounts and notifying the son when the small charges showed up. No win situation for all. You have my sympathy on this, for sure.
The widow next door is starting to get this crap. The other day she asked me about how to respond to the IRS call she got. She won't give up the land line though. Her daughter lives about 50 miles away and I notified her of this starting.
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Old 06-13-2016, 12:45 PM   #43
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There should be a short list for this stuff;

1) The IRS never calls you.
2) You haven't won anything.
3) If your home needs fixing, call someone don't let them call you.
4) Your grandson is not in jail.
5) Real charities do not call you.

The last one I learned about the hard way. I looked up the ones I'd been contributing to after the fact and they were all the "high fees" places where the charity got 10 to 20 cents on the dollar.
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Old 06-13-2016, 01:30 PM   #44
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The list could be a bit longer.
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Originally Posted by RobbieB View Post
There should be a short list for this stuff;

1) The IRS never calls you.
2) You haven't won anything.
3) If your home needs fixing, call someone don't let them call you.
4) Your grandson is not in jail.
5) Real charities do not call you.
6. Rachel is not from YOUR Cardholder Services department
7. If they called you, they must know your name and address. Make them say it.
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Old 06-13-2016, 01:36 PM   #45
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I have received calls from Discover card re suspected (and verified) fraud. They did know my name, my address and my account number.
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Old 06-13-2016, 01:45 PM   #46
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The list could be a bit longer.
You can add this one (I just got the call 10 minutes ago)

Your car does not need an extended warranty.
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Old 06-13-2016, 02:56 PM   #47
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Skimming this thread and others, I thank goodness we have always had an electronic butler (aka answering machine). Only a few scam calls have ever gotten through - the ones with the chutzpah to actually leave a message. ("THE IRS" being among them. Also, there is someone who doesn't identify himself,and asks Mr. A, by his first name, to "pick up." We have only ever gotten a single "Microsoft calling about a problem with your computer," and that's only because I was waiting for a doctor to call, and snatched up the phone on the first ring without checking the screen.

With due respect to OP's Mother, who sounds like a kind person, I am a little surprised that anyone of any age thinks it's "rude" to "screen" one's calls with an answering machine. It's a lot ruder to use someone else's paid-for telephone connection to spread fraud and waste people's time.
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Old 06-13-2016, 05:22 PM   #48
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+1
Another weakness was any kind of veteran's organization, no matter how absurd its name.
It doesn't have to be absurd. The American Legion has tried to scam a LOT of money from my Dad. It's really pretty damn sad that they try and take advantage of a WWII vet.

Sent via mobile device. Please excuse any grammatical errors.
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Old 06-13-2016, 05:22 PM   #49
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GoldenSunset, I'd be worried. She's giving them information and you can't be sure how much information. I'd be upset to find out that my mother gave out my phone number to these people. Someone else mentioned having a peer talk to her. My next door neighbor, in his 80's, will listen to me about bogus charities but not his daughter.
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Old 06-13-2016, 07:37 PM   #50
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DH's Entertainment

DH started playing with the scammers until they hung up.

To all their questions, proddings and persistance, he would simply mumble in his best gravelly voice:

"Rutabaga.....artichoke....potato....turnip...ruta baga.....artichoke....potato.....turnip.....rutaba ga......artichoke....."

He would continue the monotone throughout their protests:

"Mr. ________, are you there?"

"I'm having a hard time understanding you."

"What do you mean?"

But DH continued droning on in the monotone.

Then, after an exclamation like, "You're crazy, man!" (usually cruder than that) the caller would hang up on DH.

We had a good laugh.........and got fewer calls.

I have suggested it to my 89-year-old mom, but she considers it too rude.

But it did feel good to waste their time while they wasted ours!

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Old 06-13-2016, 08:16 PM   #51
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With due respect to OP's Mother, who sounds like a kind person, I am a little surprised that anyone of any age thinks it's "rude" to "screen" one's calls with an answering machine.
I consider it an absolute must. I never answer the phone until I hear a real live person on the other end. Half the time I send them packing. I am so utterly cold and heartless in this regard that I don't even record my own message, I just leave the pre-recorded "machine voice" on the box.

I'm a bad man -
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Old 06-13-2016, 08:20 PM   #52
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When I get such a call and they introduce themselves I just say no thank you and hang up. I told one charity solicitor that they just ensured that I would never make a donation to them.
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Old 06-13-2016, 08:43 PM   #53
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I have nomorobo, but the phone still rings once before the call is transferred. I get 5 to 10 annoying calls a day. Nomorobo misses some, but I do not pick up the phone if I do not recognize the number. I would immediately call back anyone I know that left a message. That never seems to happen.
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Old 06-13-2016, 10:38 PM   #54
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Mom died in 2012. I am still getting charity requests for her
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Old 06-14-2016, 07:15 AM   #55
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Mom died in 2012. I am still getting charity requests for her
My Dad had made a political contribution in 2002 before he died in 2002. Up until recently the political party kept sending mail and calling looking for more money. I would tell them he had past but the left hand did not tell the right hand. Of course he got called for jury duty 6 years after he died, because the left hand of the state did not tell the drivers license bureau that he had died, nor did the drivers license division check the social security death index.
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Old 06-14-2016, 01:02 PM   #56
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I just got a call from the "Windows Technical Department", hahahaha. Hung up on him.

Thought of this thread.
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Old 06-14-2016, 01:14 PM   #57
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I just got a call from the "Windows Technical Department", hahahaha. Hung up on him.

Thought of this thread.
I just got a message the Microsoft has locked my computer and to call an 888 number. I also thought of this thread
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My Rant about Mom-UPDATE
Old 09-28-2016, 07:19 AM   #58
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My Rant about Mom-UPDATE

Just an update to this topic. After continued issues with callers trying to get my Mom to "Collect her winnings" from various lotteries and contests that she had not entered and finally convincing Mom that the President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was indeed not who he professed to be, my Mom agreed to change her phone number. She was reluctant to agree to this but just couldn't seem to screen her calls. Her hearing is not good nor is her eyesight so her ability to effectively use caller ID as a screening tool just didn't work. The great news however is that Time Warner, her phone provider, has a very easy to use service, with no cost, which enables the customer to select, "no spoof calls", "no anonymous calls" and "no robo calls". Problem solved. No need to change her number. Once these features are selected from the My TWC dashboard, your phone rings once and then is redirected to a voicemail response to the caller stating that the person the caller is trying to reach does not accept calls from anonymous callers, callers who use spoof numbers or auto dialed callers.

We activated the same features on our phone and no longer field calls from Rachel from cardholder services or Microsoft, etc.


My Mom is reporting that she gets 8-10 one ring calls a day now but is no longer bothered.




Thanks to all of those who tried to help me with this issue. I love my Mom and am so happy that we succeeded in protecting her.
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Old 09-28-2016, 07:33 AM   #59
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I just got a message the Microsoft has locked my computer and to call an 888 number. I also thought of this thread
Interestingly this happened to my Mom just yesterday. Yes my 91 year old Mom uses a computer. She called me yesterday and I accessed her computer remotely. (Thanks to Teamviewer free version). I assumed that this was a scam of some sort but the only way I was able to delete that screen and continue working was to shut down the computer by literally turning it off from the physical button on the machine and rebooting. Only then did it begin working correctly. She does have Norton anti-virus on so I'm not sure how this message effectively froze her screen. I hope it doesn't keep happening.
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Old 09-28-2016, 07:42 AM   #60
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If you don't have Malwarebytes on it, please start using it now.
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