We have talked about many dangers that face our senior population but one of the most egregious offensives is when people try to scam our elderly out of their hard-earned money. These thieves and rats are some of the lowest of low lives, and I have no problem saying such. Scammers are a problem in today's society. They prey on the kindness of others. Scammers are the lowest beings on earth.
How to avoid being taken advantage of
There are ways you can keep from being taken advantage of when you are faced with a scam artist. The biggest way to prevent a loved one from being scammed is to build trust with your loved one. If they trust you they are more likely to talk to you. They won't be embarrassed to tell you if they think they were taken advantage of but to do that they have to trust that you aren't going to blow up and become all yelly.
Pay attention to the accent
Now, this may sound a bit wrong because of today's societal thoughts but most of the scammers come from overseas. So if they are sending you an email that has lots of grammatical errors outside of how they talk it's trash. If you are talking to someone on the phone and they have an accent again take what they are promising to be trash. Many of the scam calls come from India so while not all scammers are from India a big enough chunk of them do that you need to be worried about them.
Is it too good to be true?
Another point you want to pay attention to is the offer itself. Is it too good to be true? Then it is. There are many saying about this. No such thing as a free lunch. You can't get something for nothing. These all apply to scammer offers. Now they have gotten around where you don't get this type of scam as much. Scammers are now inducing more of an emotional response so that you aren't thinking. Yet if you stop and slow down you will see the holes in their plan.
Also, know that they are always one step ahead of you so like the Nigerian prince scam you may think you can crawfish out of the deal and take their money but they will have your banking information which is what they are actually wanting.
Also, like everything else, if they ask you to not talk about what you are doing that is also a good indicator of a scam. They want you to keep their actions a secret. If it's secret then it's not an upstanding activity.
Types of common Scammers
There are more types of scams than I have time to write about here. If I was to add a new scam to this list I would never get it published. There is the door to door scams, phone scams, email scams, and many more. However, these are some of the more common styles of scams being used today.
person in need (Grandparent Scam)
Imagine you get a call at 8:00 pm and it is a youngish-sounding boy that says "Hey grandma do you know who this is?" Most of the time the person receiving this call will answer the question with who they closest resemble. That is the information the scammer is needing. Once they have a name they can start applying pressure to the victim by using their emotional tied to that person.
The scammer will then start talking about how they are in a bind of some sort and beg for the victim to help them out of the tight spot. Often will refer to other family members by the common terms of affection, like Dad or uncle, or aunt or cousins. Then they ask you to not tell so and so because they might get mad. This is another way of making sure the victim doesn't talk.
Government imposters
For seniors, this is a big one. This one turns up for many different branches of government yet the ones that appear more often are the Social Security Administration, IRS, and Medicare. The scammer works the emotional angle hard in these types of scams. They want the victim to be afraid of the ramifications of them going against the government. Often our elderly will fall victim to these because they are reacting to the thought of what will the neighbors think if they get arrested.
The big hole in the scammer's plans is that our government will not call you if there is a problem. They will send an agent to your house. If they are trying to get ahold of you they will send a letter on official letterhead. So if you are able to help you're loved ones stay calm enough to think clearly they will be safe.
Now if the call sounded very convincing and you want to put their mind at ease you can actually hang up and call that agency and see what they say. That way you know you are getting the official department that can tell you what you are supposed to be in trouble for.
Funeral Expense Scams
Now, this is a part of life most people do not want to think of, however, many seniors don't want their kids to have to worry about making these challenging decisions. So they often do go and make their funeral arrangements. Yet there are those without scruples that can and do take advantage of the elderly and conduct funeral frauds. They can be the means of scamming your loved one into buying a top-of-the-line casket to Charging way too much for a cremation.
The big indicator is when the funeral home doesn't show you an itemized list of all their fees. This is actually required by the Funeral Rule as written by the FTC
Corona Virus scams
Now with the scare of the Wuhan Flu subsiding in most of the US though it never fully was an all-out panic here in Western Oklahoma there was for a while a good amount of scamming going on in the foggy start of the coronavirus. There were snake oil salesmen trying to hock all kinds of products that would protect you from Covid19.So much so that the FTC put out a list of key points to look out for.
Social Media Scammers
These are happening all the time and have been around since the internet because big in the 90s. From the famous Nigerian prince's email scam to Facebook marketplace scams. The internet can still be a fairly wild place. So how do you keep your loved one safe? You have to talk to them and see what is being bought or sold. There are times when you will be taken for a ride. I know I have given plenty of lessons learned money to people who just want your money.
Photo by Maxim Hopman on Unsplash
Lottery Scams
These are the phone calls that you get that have upbeat music or a very excited speaker telling you that you have won some lottery or some other prize. They are meant to excite the victim so that they are willing to cough up their money. Often they will call this a processing fee or something to that effect and try to get the bank information or they will want the banking information to "deposit" the money into their account
You are not going to win a lottery prize without you coughing up some money. So to win and never played is a big giveaway. Then to have to pay to receive the prize is again a big tell that this is a scam. You also get these types of scams over the mail and often these are business invites that say you have won an award yet to get the award you have to pay something like $500. This means everyone is a winner so you aren't that special.
Phone scams
Many of these scams are done over the phone but one scam you want to make sure you don't fall for is the scam that is aiming at getting an affirmative answer from you. For instance, Can you hear me? The reply was yeah. You do that they have recorded your voice and they can now use your identity any way they like. Try to come up with another way of answering them without saying yes, or sure Yup, or anything like that. You use to get that as an old long-distance line scam. They would get you to change long-distance carriers by getting you to say yes and that was all the permission you needed. Then you got a long-distance bill for $500 dollars and no way to dispute it because they had your voice on record saying yes.
Tech Support scammers
These are very damaging. They can be malware installed or even legit software used for nefarious reasons.
One example is in this video.
So if you do have a problem and your computer, out of nowhere tells you to talk to tech support it is fake. Don't call the number. Just go and call your local computer repair man and have them look the computer over.
Email fraud
There are all types of email frauds and even zoom phishing scams these are also types of scams that you want to be aware of. But email scams can also use viruses as a means to gain access to your information and so never open an attachment in an email. Even if it is from someone you know. If you do receive an email with an attachment from someone you know then call and ask them if they sent it. If not then delete it.
I am also going to include text message scams. These are often messages that arrive in your inbox stating that your amazon account or Netflix account is going to be disconnected or locked because of "suspicious" activity. This is just their effort to get your information. Do not follow the link in the email. Also, you can pay attention to who sends the email message it is 100% of the time an email address and that address has nothing to do with the site they are claiming to be blocked.
This is a fake message I got recently
As you can see the site is claiming to be for amazon yet it comes from a gibberish account from caberu.uk and the place they want them to go to is another site that has nothing to do with Amazon. All you have to do is slow down and look and you see this is nothing but a scam. Because one amazon wouldn't tell you your account is locked till you try to access your account and the message would be from Amazon and the information link would be from amazon.
Medicare/Heath Insurance Scam
This is the same as the government department scams. They are wanting personal information so that they can take your identity and use it for their own reasons. If you ever get a phone call text message or email from them stating something is wrong don't give information until you call the organization back.
peer to peer payment scams
This is often a part of the grandparent scam. In that, they can have you send money via cash app or venmo to the scammer without you knowing who it is. You also can't get your money back from these places.
Talk to the local county sheriff
If you ever find yourself on the end of any of these or you feel as if you may be on a scam call. You can be as polite as you want and hang up and talk to the police or your country sheriff's Department. If they are claiming to be your bank ask for their name and you will call back. Then call your branch of the bank and see if anybody by that name recently called you. You can do this again for any business or government entity.