I feel bad for the victims. It's almost always the elderly and they're relentlessly pursued over the phone. You basically have to remove their phones, or remove their capability to ruin their finances. I imagine that day is coming quite soon for my in-laws.
And sometimes it's not at all the same older person who you think gets scammed.
I know some elderly folks who I thought were in pretty good shape mentally and such got pulled into one of those scams. It was the grandchild calling for money from jail type thing.
I never would have thought they would have fallen for a scam like that, they did.
You can never talk too early to older folks about this stuff. Lay down some hard and fast rules such as "Never give out info / anything to someone who calls you first, call them at a number you look up on your bank statement, or call someone directly. Call me / alternate person if someone asks your for information or money, etc."
Scammers have excuses of course but some of those rules will work.
I agree. My friend got scammed with a variation of the gift card scam. The main difference in his case, fear was not exploited, but rather the search of an amazing deal ( $100 for a new ipad or something like that ).
I probed a little bit since I was curious how he perceived it and he effectively said the idea of getting a deal took the best of him.
For sure. I was mostly referring to online "deals" with my comment, but it definitely applies to phone solicitation, too.
I personally ignore almost any phone call from unknown numbers these days because so many are scammy or robocalls. I figure that if anyone really needs me, they'll leave a message.
I keep on getting robocalls from a Chinese scam for more than 1 to 2 years now. I don't understand Chinese but asked a friend to translate and it's obviously a scam aimed at older chinese expats. They always leave the same message. Im surprised it still works after all this time.
I avoid all solicitation in general. If I want something I research it and buy it. I never make a purchcase based on an incoming offer of any sort even if I want the item or service and it’s a good deal.
It avoids 90% of scams before I even enter the funnel.
I once went to a car show where Samsung was showing their Android Auto connectivity. They had a raffle for a 49" 32:9 monitor, I put in my name. A few weeks later an email came saying I had won. Of course I thought it was a scam, on second reading I remember giving my details for the raffle, and I genuinely had won the nonitor..
I was at some festival where they had a raffle like this, thinking it was harmless, I put in my name and number. A week later I get a call that I have won a vacation but I need to come and attend their seminar.
It was some sort of buy timeshares which work across multiple properties around the world. Total cost was $10-15K but you can make low monthly payments. After the loan is paid off, you can stay for free during your vacations.
I did some rough calculations and thought it was worth it. But when I asked for better pictures or addresses of their properties, they could not provide it. They were getting frustrated and kept saying why you care what your room looks like, who stays in their room on a vacation, etc. After their refusal to give any such info, I left but there were other people who were signing up.
Later, I learned that these are indeed scams, and I got lucky that I didn't sign up with them. Their properties might be run down, and the company might fold after a few years and you will lose access access to "their" vacation properties.
To their credit, they did give me a a gift certificate for low end hotels chain.
Jeez, the timeshare industry is infamous for overpromising and not having the best properties or security for your 'investment' but not even having glossy brochures and maps to show customers giving out buying signals is really low effort for $15k
If the only way to sell those goods is with aggressive, high-pressure sales pitches & environments it's a good sign nobody actually wants that product and that entire industry should be regulated away.
It's almost always the elderly and they're relentlessly pursued over the phone.
I think that's a stereotype, rather than a rule. I've seen articles in the newspaper occasionally where the victim is a person in their 30's or 40's.
I suspect that we don't hear a lot about that because there isn't a lobbying or information group like the AARP for 30-somethings. Also, losing $250 to a scammer is less tragic for a younger victim with a full-time job than it is for a 70-year-old on SNAP, so they don't talk about it as much.
When I worked in a large office with very ordinary, I saw people of all ages falling for scams. They just didn't know they were scams until it was all over, and then they just stopped talking about it.
