Scams that target seniors are more prevalent today than ever. The first time I became aware of such things was after the horrific damage caused by Hurricane Charlie years ago. Scammers seemed to pop out of the woodwork to “help” older folks fix the damage to their homes. Sometimes,the crooks would show up at the door of a home needing obvious help and when the owner had been waiting weeks for his turn to come with a local repair company, he or she might decide to hire the visitor without checking them out. Many seniors lost a fortune to these shysters who demanded payment up front to fix their roofs or other problems with their homes. Once they had the money, they often left the work unfinished.
Today, unscrupulous people prey on our older population with counterfeit prescription drugs, Internet scams, funeral and cemetery scams, and investment scams, to name a few.
There is an IRS scam that is fairly commonplace. A person receives a phone call – an automated message – saying this is a final message from the IRS and a lawsuit is being filed against the person, insisting they return the call at once. Once they speak to you in person, these scammers will try to persuade you to give up personal information or demand money from you.
Scammers are sophisticated and adept at convincing unsuspecting victims to give up their money and personal information. Even Caller I.D. can’t be trusted. Email is also used to reach potential victims. You could even see fake IRS logos. Just today, I received an email informing me that I am a beneficiary of a 26 million pound estate from some man I never heard of who died in 2001 in England. All I had to do was contact them for more information to claim my rightful share of the estate. Had I actually called them, there would have been some catch to it such as, asking for my Social Security number to verify my identity or paying a nominal sum to facilitate payment of the estate. (No, I did not contact them.)
Another popular scam is for someone to telephone you late at night and pretend to be your grandchild. (Or even someone calling on behalf of your grandchild) You are told that the grandchild is in jail in Mexico or even in the United States and needs money for bail. Believe it or not, there are people who fall for such lies.
There are steps you can take to avoid being scammed.
1. No matter who the caller says he or she is, never give out credit or debit card numbers over the phone! That also goes for Social Security numbers and bank PIN numbers. Not too long ago my then health insurance company kept calling us to update their records (which we knew did not need updating). They wanted to discuss any health issues and prescriptions. I might have talked to them except that they wanted my Social Security number. I told the lady that the company should already have it. She replied that they do but I needed to provide it again to verify my identity. I refused to comply. Do not allow these people to intimidate you because you never know if a caller is legitimate.
According to www.amac.us., you can call the IRS or Better Business Bureau to determine if a business or caller is legit. Never call the business back at numbers they give you.
2 The FBI warns seniors about two kinds of funeral and cemetery scams. One of those has the scammer read the obituaries, attend funerals or call the family of a complete stranger and claim the deceased owed them money. They try to extort the money from the relatives. You’d be surprised how many people will pay such a fake debt. Dishonest funeral homes sometimes add unwanted charges to the bill.
3. The most familiar scam to many of us is the phone call from a fake telemarketer for a charity to solicit money. Again, many people fall for this one.
4. Have you ever clicked on a Facebook or Internet link and were greeted with a lot of unreadable gobbledy-gook and a notice saying your computer has been hacked and you must call a certain phone number at once to correct the problem? That has happened to me a couple of times on Facebook. Once I click on a suggested post, I am greeted with that screen. I cannot shut down the computer normally and must hard close it. I wait a few minutes and then find it is sometimes difficult to reboot. My computer has good anti-malware and spyware on it, so no damage was done.
If you suspect you have been scammed, call the police and your bank at once to minimize the damage. Be very suspicious in the future when you receive those odd phone calls or emails. Better safe than sorry.
