This is so true. Back in the 90's my father was president of the local law society and the managing partner of a sizable law firm. He had a very sharp and enquiring mind.
He's now retired, in his late 70s and beginning to show signs of age related dementia.
Last year he fell for a phone scam from someone claiming to be his ISP, where he was persuaded to install remote desktop software onto his computer and login to internet banking. The scammers weaved a tale about fixing his computer and sending him an "authorisation code" which was actually the SMS code from his bank as they'd added themselves as a new payee. He simply read it out to them.
The scammers transferred just under $10,000 to their account.
Luckily, they'd set off enough red flags that he called me asking why his ISP wanted to know what bank he was with. Once we worked out what had happened we called the bank straight away and were able to get the transfer stopped by the bank just in time. It was a Saturday and he was literally saved by the weekend. Very lucky.
Turns out he was in the process of changing ISPs when the call arrived, so a garden variety phone scam was perfectly targetted.
He's now retired, in his late 70s and beginning to show signs of age related dementia.
Last year he fell for a phone scam from someone claiming to be his ISP, where he was persuaded to install remote desktop software onto his computer and login to internet banking. The scammers weaved a tale about fixing his computer and sending him an "authorisation code" which was actually the SMS code from his bank as they'd added themselves as a new payee. He simply read it out to them.
The scammers transferred just under $10,000 to their account.
Luckily, they'd set off enough red flags that he called me asking why his ISP wanted to know what bank he was with. Once we worked out what had happened we called the bank straight away and were able to get the transfer stopped by the bank just in time. It was a Saturday and he was literally saved by the weekend. Very lucky.
Turns out he was in the process of changing ISPs when the call arrived, so a garden variety phone scam was perfectly targetted.