Elder scams - Consumer Reports

[Amethyst]

One of the men Mr. A. and I worked with (well...we did the working; the man in question, not so much), bought a PC because "everyone" was getting a computer and he'd been told they were useful. In the end, he used it to inventory the contents of his freezer, and that was that. Being of the generation of men who never learned to type, he did not like having to input information via keyboard! He is long dead, but probably would have loved voice-command apps, such as Siri.

Reminds me - many years ago, MIL & FIL got a computer, because their accountant told them they could 'write it off' for their business. Ended up with a pretty high-end system for the time, and lots of business software that they never used.

MIL entered all her recipes into the word processor, printed them, and then deleted the file and started a new one. We asked why she didn't save each one "Why? I've got them printed now."

That was an expensive typewriter.

-ERD50

 

[Philliefan33]

Not really a scam, but an instance of a store clerk taking advantage of an older customer. When my mom bought a digital camera to use on her first trip to Hawaii, the guy at Radio Shack sold her a lead-lined pouch for her memory cards "so the airport X-ray machines won't erase my pictures".

 

[hnzw_rui]

Not really a scam, but an instance of a store clerk taking advantage of an older customer. When my mom bought a digital camera to use on her first trip to Hawaii, the guy at Radio Shack sold her a lead-lined pouch for her memory cards "so the airport X-ray machines won't erase my pictures".

Sad part is the Radio Shack guy might actually believe what he told your mom.

 

[JoeWras]

Sad part is the Radio Shack guy might actually believe what he told your mom.

What's a Radio Shack?

 

[Dcharles]

The scammers preying on the elderly are low life's who are in the same class of those who steal your property after a tornado damaged your home or ripped you off during a flood when your home is isolated from protection. What we need is a few more " Judge Roy Beans" judges out there locking up these thugs and throwing away the keys. The rewards for scammers and computer hackers are huge while their punishment if caught is hardly a hardship. If I caught the guy who hacked me; I would guarantee that he would never do it again. These thugs/thieves need to be stopped with appropriate punishment, otherwise it will get worse.


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[frayne]

No doubt these scammers are low life POS but are they any better or any worse than some FA or broker who takes advantage of some little old lady or man by selling expensive annuities or churning their portfolios to juice up their commissions ?

IMHO it's the same thing.

 

[Walt34]

The one I remember the most, because it was so frustrating, is a case involving a retired Army nurse with short-term memory loss and living alone in her house. Neighbors tried to help but there is only so much they could do.

Anyway she had had some tree-trimming work done, and she paid the tree-trimmers. They came back the next day and she paid them again. This went on for several days until the neighbor realized what was going on and called our office (Fraud Section). I went to talk to her and left my business card on the coffee table in the living room, and before I got back to the office (20 minutes) there was a voice mail from a neighbor asking why I'd been there. She'd already forgotten me being there!

Anyway, she had a business card from them or at least a phone number that I could use to identify them. I had the bank film (and it was film back then) of them cashing the checks.

But the prosecutor wouldn't press the charges because she would have been an unreliable witness and there was no way to prove that the checks weren't gifts or loans or for some other work.

Very frustrating - I had the evidence but couldn't prove the crime.

 

[easysurfer]

No doubt these scammers are low life POS but are they any better or any worse than some FA or broker who takes advantage of some little old lady or man by selling expensive annuities or churning their portfolios to juice up their commissions ?

IMHO it's the same thing.

Kinda like a wolf in wolf's clothing vs a wolf in sheep's clothing.

 

[Dcharles]

We have lots of wolves on the hunt, and your example of having the evidence to convict but not the will to prosecute is only feeding the hungry wolves and growing the problem.


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[frayne]

As the boomer generation retires look for more scammers and fraudsters and increased levels of sophistication to separate the elderly and their money.

 

[Badger]

We just had installed a land line a month ago from AT&T when the package cost for the phone and internet service was the same or less than internet service by itself. Within a few hours of installing the phone we started receiving calls. I guess we get about 6+ a day. We ignore all of them and when checked on the caller ID they are usually from out of state or Canada. Heck, we don't even remember the phone number ourselves and no one we know has been told. The phone will be used for out going calls only or as emergency calls in from either my wife or me if the cell phone is not answered. Any incoming calls are most likely robo calls, calls for donations, or scams. There is a message for incoming calls that we don't answer calls that are not on our directory (there is no directory) and don't call back. We also put the phone number on the No Call Registry.

Do you think we can make money on these callers like you see on TV?

Cheers!

 

[athena53]

Have you signed up for NoMoRobo.com? It was recommended here and it's free. Their computer detects that short period of dead air after you answer a robo-call and disconnects it. You answer a call only if it rings more than once.

 

[haha]

So I don't think it's necessarily a medical issue that makes people gullible. I think it's more a personality trait. Too greedy, too empathetic, too trusting, whatever.

Here at ER.org we may be plenty greedy, but empathic or trusting...maybe not.

Ha

 

[ERD50]

Have you signed up for NoMoRobo.com? It was recommended here and it's free. Their computer detects that short period of dead air after you answer a robo-call and disconnects it. You answer a call only if it rings more than once.

NoMoRoBo is good, but to clarify, it doesn't work as you described.

You need the 'simultaneous ring' feature, and you get set up to ring a NoMoRoBo number simultaneously with your line. The Caller ID info is received between the 1st and 2nd ring. Their computers checks the Caller ID, if it is in their data base as a 'scammer', they hang up, dropping the call for both of you. If the number is 'clean', it keeps ringing both.

The scammers are getting around it though - they just use random numbers, sometimes a number in your area, sometimes your own number.

-ERD50

 

[SkisALot]

+1

Predators and sociopaths. The real dregs of society, they prey on the most vulnerable.

I've known a few people who were so desperate they fell for this crap. What I don't get are those who aren't desperate, and fall for it. (And I know a number of those.)
I also screen calls. In fact, I can't remember the last time I answered the phone.

 

[Nodak]

Had a variation of the Facebook scam today. I received a friend request from a cousin that was already on my friends list. I thought that strange but accepted the request. Later in the day I got a message that appeared to be from her saying she had great news for me and launched into a way she had gotten $100,000 dollars from some organization and said she was sending me a friend request from them. When I received the request I looked at it and it was a picture of some guy holding a check supposedly from a lottery. Being suspicious I asked my supposed cousin what is the name of an Aunt in a specific town. We are old enough that there are only 2 Aunts still alive. The person accused me of not believing them. I responded with "can you not answer the question?" and they did not answer. When I tried to send a message I was now blocked. At this point I contacted my cousin to let her know her Facebook account had been hacked. I guess the point of all this is that if you get a friend request from someone already on your friend list LOOK OUT.

 

[Souschef]

The one that blew me away was an episode on Dr. Phil. This lady had sent cars and money to Nigeria to this man who "Loved" her. The picture he used was someone else on Facebook. They had the man there, and this woman still could not believe she had been scammed.
She had t o have cognitive deficiencies

 

[mystang52]

I recall another unrelated post asking about Gmail. I use Gmail and am now thankful. I'm now getting about 3 scam emails a day. Gmail automatically puts them in a separate Spam folder. I just delete them, but the theme is the same on all of them: trying to get in touch with me because their accounts payable department needs to send me money, or something to that effect.

 

[Nodak]

Just a couple of minutes ago I got another of the famous Nigerian lawyer emails looking for a relative of someone who died and left millions. Apparently there are still people dumb enough to fall for that crap. Years ago I would play along with them for awhile now I just delete them.

 

[NW-Bound]

If you think that only the elderlies are gullible, you need to watch "Compliance", a 2012 movie on DVD that I happened to check out from the library.

After watching it, seeing how ridiculous the storyline plays out, and also seeing the claim that it is based on a true event, I searched the Web and found that the movie sticks fairly close to real life.

A prankster called a McDonald fast food store in Kentucky pretending to be a policeman, and persuaded the female manager of the store to strip search a 18-year old female worker because she was suspected of stealing from a customer. The worker was left naked, while waiting for the police to arrive.

As ridiculous as it sounds, the caller eventually was able to talk the female manager into bringing in her boyfriend to watch the naked worker in custody while waiting for the police. The naked worker was made to do jumping jacks, and other humiliating acts. This boyfriend ended up sexually abusing the young worker under the coaching of the prankster.

It turned out that this prankster had done the same at several other fast-food stores throughout the nation via long distance calls. However, no other cases went beyond the strip search and ended up in sexual abuse as this Kentucky case.

It is so unreal, you would think someone made up this ridiculous story.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(film)
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_phone_call_scam#The_Mount_Washington_scam

 

[braumeister]

The one that blew me away was an episode on Dr. Phil. This lady had sent cars and money to Nigeria to this man who "Loved" her. The picture he used was someone else on Facebook. They had the man there, and this woman still could not believe she had been scammed.
She had t o have cognitive deficiencies

Look up "confirmation bias" and "cognitive dissonance" to see that you don't have to be a dimwit to deny your foolishness. Sad but all too common at any age.

 

[scrabbler1]

If you think that only the elderlies are gullible, you need to watch "Compliance", a 2012 movie on DVD that I happened to check out from the library.

After watching it, seeing how ridiculous the storyline plays out, and also seeing the claim that it is based on a true event, I searched the Web and found that the movie sticks fairly close to real life.

A prankster called a McDonald fast food store in Kentucky pretending to be a policeman, and persuaded the female manager of the store to strip search a 18-year old female worker because she was suspected of stealing from a customer. The worker was left naked, while waiting for the police to arrive.

As ridiculous as it sounds, the caller eventually was able to talk the female manager into bringing in her boyfriend to watch the naked worker in custody while waiting for the police. The naked worker was made to do jumping jacks, and other humiliating acts. This boyfriend ended up sexually abusing the young worker under the coaching of the prankster.

It turned out that this prankster had done the same at several other fast-food stores throughout the nation via long distance calls. However, no other cases went beyond the strip search and ended up in sexual abuse as this Kentucky case.

It is so unreal, you would think someone made up this ridiculous story.

See: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compliance_(film)
and
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strip_search_phone_call_scam#The_Mount_Washington_scam

There was a Law & Order SVU episode based on this, too. Robin Williams was the guest star in this superb episode.

"Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" Authority (TV Episode 2008) - IMDb

 

[Bestwifeever]

Two cases reported just in this week's local news--one "elderly" woman (no age given by newspaper, just the term used) sent more than $35k to a foreign country thinking they were fees for the big sweepstakes she had won. She told her son about it a month later and he called the cops. The second "elderly" (again, no age given) victim was called by someone pretending to be a public defender, and she wired almost $4k for her grandson's bail--later that day she called her grandson, who had not been arrested. Too bad both women didn't call their families before sending money.

 

[ls99]

The one that blew me away was an episode on Dr. Phil. This lady had sent cars and money to Nigeria to this man who "Loved" her. The picture he used was someone else on Facebook. They had the man there, and this woman still could not believe she had been scammed.
She had t o have cognitive deficiencies

And she votes too!

 

[2017ish]

Another example of "not only the elderly," although we had previously alerted our parents to this one: How I Fell Face First for an Epic IRS Scam | Narratively | Human stories, boldly told.

If greed doesn't reel you in, how about fear of being jailed by the IRS?