Danger Aware Elders

Scare tactics

Scammers and con artists alike will often use frightening situations and scenarios to entice you into whatever method of fraud they are using to get your money.

There is the grandchild in trouble scam. They have someone call you and simply say "Grandparent?" - and if you respond in a positive manner, as if you have grandchildren but simply are not recognising the voice, they will launch into a story of being in jail, or kidnapped, or in some kind of trouble that ends with you sending money through a system which has NO REVERSAL once you put the money into it.

The best way to handle these calls is to give the caller false information. Start by calling them by a name that is not in your immediate family. When they respond as if they are that person, you will KNOW it is a scam. At that point you could lead the scammer on a wild goose chase of word salad - talking about cookie recipes you have tried, such as spinach chocolate chip, or kale sugar cookies. Or better yet, simply disconnect the call.

Many scammers target the recently widowed, because they know they are emotionally exhausted. They will claim the recently deceased had ordered some product, and that to cancel the order the person must connect to their computer and allow the scammer access. Once they get into your computer they will lie and claim they cannot see you accessing your bank, then manipulate the code ON YOUR COMPUTER to make you believe they have overpaid you, and that you must return the money or they will die, or starve, or their children will.

The best way to handle these types of calls is to claim you do not bank using a computer - that you must go to the bank, which is only two blocks away, and a nice clerk there always helps you because you were scammed once before, and so on and so on. Or, again, just disconnect the call.

NEVER let anyone convince you that you must send them money using gift cards. Like certain money sending businesses, once you give the scammer the money it is gone forever, as most of the scammers are working from other countries.

NEVER LET A STRANGER MAKE YOU BELIEVE YOU OWE THEM MONEY. Tell them to take you to court to get it back.

In-home sales

We often need to invite people into our homes for repairs and maintenance that we ourselves are incapable of or uninterested in attempting.

Many businesses teach their personnel that making friends with the customer matters more than telling them about the work that may need to be accomplished.

So when they enter your home, they want to talk about your family, your pets, your religion, your politics - and no matter what it is that you talk about, they are always 100% in alignment with your stated views. They will talk about the job, and eventually, with much prodding, the actual final cost. But their main focus will be on YOU, not on the job at hand.

It is often best to treat such people as if they are your worst enemy. Yes, there are legitimate businesses that will send out very pleasant technicians or workers who have nothing but resolving your issues in mind. But there are others who are predators, and you need to be able to tell the difference.

You might wonder how you could do this. First: never accept a job quote immediately if it is your first quote, no matter how pleasant the person is. If they have the best offer - the closest to your needs - they will not mind if you call them back. A SCAMMER will always try to CLOSE THE DEAL on the first encounter.

Phone to computer money transfers

Scammers will call a person based on the fact that they have been listed as a survivor to a recent death. The scammers know that a person is often in so much emotional hurt and confusion from the loss of a loved one that they will often believe things they are told over the phone, even if unusual.

They will engage the MARK - a mark is a person who has been targeted for abuse, for a scam. They will claim that the mark, or the mark's recently lost loved one, was owed back money or a refund or a rebate, but that to get the money the mark must log on to their computer and then on to their bank. Through the process the mark is walked through installing software on their computer that allows the scammer to change the code that shows the numbers in the bank account.

They then walk the mark through a process of getting their "refund", and one way or another they make the mark believe that the mark has made a mistake: that instead of getting a refund of a set amount, it is ten times or one hundred times more money than should have been refunded.

They convince the mark that the money has indeed been deposited in their bank by faking the image on the screen from the bank. They often have to BLACK OUT the screen in order to edit the underlying computer programming that shows the numbers from the bank. The mark's computer shows the "mistake", but the bank does not see the money, because it is not real.

The scammer will cry and complain that they will lose their job, that their children will go hungry, that they will have to repay the mistake, and so on. They will yell. They will do every evil thing they can think of to convince the mark that they are in trouble.

The scammer then does everything they can to get the mark to obtain cash, or gift cards that can be used as cash, to return the mistakenly refunded money. This may be by mailing it to an accomplice of the scammer, or to the scammer. They can also get the money from gift cards - and once that money is sent, there is no way to get it back.

Why this page exists

Elder abuse is nearly as prevalent as child abuse. Scamming elders out of their money is a three-plus billion dollar a year enterprise in the USA.

Scammers cheat American elderly out of over three billion dollars a year, and that money is unrecoverable. It is important to understand the various types of scams that often succeed.