Elderly parents and scammers

[IGGYFORMVP]

Hi all just thought I would write a quick CP PSA for everyone here with elderly parents.

Yesterday I stopped by my Dad's place on a whim to see how he was doing. He is 74 and lives independently. He was on the phone giving google play card pin numbers to scammers out of India. They posed as bank employees and police, and he believed he was helping to catch criminals.

To make a long story short he was scammed out of over $25000 in the last three days. If I never happened to catch him in the act I imagine they would have cleaned him out of ever last dollar.

PLEASE if you have an elderly parent be very aware at how easily this can happen. I would highly recommend ensuring they only have one credit card with a reasonable limit.

He had 7 credit cards with well over $100 000 worth of credit available. Which is absolutely ridiculous for a man who put about $200 a month on his cards.

If this post saves even one CP member the bull#### we are going thru I think this post it worth it.

There is a special spot in hell for those who target the elderly with scams.

[White Out 403]

Disgusting. I'm so sorry that happened to your Dad. I honestly hope the people who do this meet a violent end. Prison rape, whatever.

[CaptainCrunch]

Thanks This is a good post and cautionary tale. I have elderly parents, my dad is pretty cagey and suspicious and paranoid by nature.



But I still make sure that when scams come up that I send him a heads up. He got caught on one that was a minor, your credit card is being billed by this online service, please verify, and he did and then called me, but then we called his bank reported it, got his credit cards changed etc.


It takes two minutes to call or email your folks if something comes up, also train them to call me if they're not sure.

[WhiteTiger]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

It takes two minutes to call or email your folks if something comes up, also train them to call me if they're not sure.

You can also always call CPS Non-emergency line. We're well versed in what scams are going around and which are currently the most popular.

[IGGYFORMVP]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Thanks This is a good post and cautionary tale. I have elderly parents, my dad is pretty cagey and suspicious and paranoid by nature.

You description of your dad describes my Dad to a T. That's why this whole thing comes as such a shock. He was so ashamed that he fell for the scam that he became extremely defensive and was actually lying about what he did.

These people are professional scammers who do this 12 hours a day every day. They have an answer for every objection you might have. They literally coached him on what to say while by the gift cards so that the police weren't notified.

The complexity and sophistication of these scams can not be understated.

The best thing you can do to protect your loved ones is to ensure that they don't have access to more capital or credit that what they need. Its just to easy for scammers to trick them.

[GGG]

Make sure you keep following up with him. As now that a scam has been successful on him whatever group that was doing it will continue to target him.

I’d have him change whatever method they used to get a hold of him, email, phone numbers etc.

[IGGYFORMVP]

Originally Posted by GGG

Make sure you keep following up with him. As now that a scam has been successful in him whatever group that was doing it will continue to target him.

Thanks GGG, I went scorched earth on everything. New phone, new cards. Talked to Equifax, CRA, banks, everything. Reduced his credit limit to under 2000 on one card.




They had him buy over 145 gift cards all totalled. How the hell does the credit card companies not flag that?

For Christ sakes he is a 74 year old man and they let him buy $6000 in Sephoria gift certificates. That a lot of ####ing eyeliner.

[Dion]

My 83 year old mother gets calls like that. Her response is to mess with them, especially the windows people who want to fix her computer. Play along for awhile and when they ask for her credit card or for some money she plays hard ball with them. After awhile they get pissed off and hang up.

There was one time when someone woman was trying to sell her some fake vacation/cruise package in Florida. Everything was going great until they asked for her CC number.

Mom: "Why should I give you my CC number?"

Scammer: "You don't want this great vacation package?"

Mom: "She asks the same question."

Scammer: "You realise I will have to give this someone else?"

Mom: "I don't care who you give it too, you're not getting my CC number."

Scammer: She gets a bit hostile with her asking how she could turn down such a great offer. More to the point that deals like this don't come up very often.

Mom: "There's no need to raise your voice, I can hear just fine. If this trip is so great why don't you take it yourself?"

Scammer: "Okay. You don't know what you're missing .Click"

[IGGYFORMVP]

Originally Posted by Dion

My 83 year old mother gets calls like that. Her response is to mess with them, especially the windows people who want to fix her computer. Play along for awhile and when they ask for her credit card or for some money she plays hard ball with them. After awhile they get pissed off and hang up.

There was one time when someone woman was trying to sell her some fake vacation/cruise package in Florida. Everything was going great until they asked for her CC number.

Mom: "Why should I give you my CC number?"

Scammer: "You don't want this great vacation package?"

Mom: "She asks the same question."

Scammer: "You realise I will have to give this someone else?"

Mom: "I don't care who you give it too, you're not getting my CC number."

Scammer: She gets a bit hostile with her asking how she could turn down such a great offer. More to the point that deals like this don't come up very often.

Mom: "There's no need to raise your voice, I can hear just fine. If this trip is so great why don't you take it yourself?"

Scammer: "Okay. You don't know what you're missing .Click"

You mom sounds awesome. That's gold.

[Dion]

Originally Posted by IGGYFORMVP

You mom sounds awesome. That's gold.

She's pretty smart for her age. She worked as an accountant for many years and knows how to handle her money. She also pretty tight with it and doesn't give any away easily. Unless she knows the person well, they aren't getting anything from her.

I was listening in the background when she answered that call and had me in stitches. She was actually smiling when she was giving that scammer the gears. She enjoys messing with people like that.

Still I reminder her to be careful and if in doubt, talk to me first.

[photon]

A while back after half listening to my wife on the phone with the "credit card company" for a while I finally had to step in and inform her she was being scammed and have her go to her bank and change all her cards...

So not just parents, though I guess we're parents so yes parents but younger parents too.

Great material to tease her with but one requires a lot of skill to do so without flying too close to the sun.

[Fire]

Originally Posted by IGGYFORMVP

Thanks GGG, I went scorched earth on everything. New phone, new cards. Talked to Equifax, CRA, banks, everything. Reduced his credit limit to under 2000 on one card.




They had him buy over 145 gift cards all totalled. How the hell does the credit card companies not flag that?

For Christ sakes he is a 74 year old man and they let him buy $6000 in Sephoria gift certificates. That a lot of ####ing eyeliner.

In most cases, credit card companies have no idea what items you're buying, only the place of business. But I agree if he had an unusual number of transactions at one store in a short period of time it seems like something they could at least call him about and ask a few questions to clarify what he's doing.

[activeStick]

The calls seemed to stop for me for three months or so but started up again just this week with an 833 area code. They call about three times every day.

[topfiverecords]

Originally Posted by Dion

She's pretty smart for her age. She worked as an accountant for many years and knows how to handle her money. She also pretty tight with it and doesn't give any away easily. Unless she knows the person well, they aren't getting anything from her.

I was listening in the background when she answered that call and had me in stitches. She was actually smiling when she was giving that scammer the gears. She enjoys messing with people like that.

Still I reminder her to be careful and if in doubt, talk to me first.

I wish. My mom would invite them for dinner.

[CaptainCrunch]

Originally Posted by activeStick

The calls seemed to stop for me for three months or so but started up again just this week with an 833 area code. They call about three times every day.

Between air horns and clanging pot lids, I've probably increased the business of ear specialists in India by a great deal. They should be sending me a spiff.


If I can deafen at least one of these F'er's then I'm doing gods work for the day.

[afc wimbledon]

Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch

Between air horns and clanging pot lids, I've probably increased the business of ear specialists in India by a great deal. They should be sending me a spiff.


If I can deafen at least one of these F'er's then I'm doing gods work for the day.

Thanked for the use of spiff, haven't heard that since I worked at A&B sound

[redforever]

Originally Posted by Dion

My 83 year old mother gets calls like that. Her response is to mess with them, especially the windows people who want to fix her computer. Play along for awhile and when they ask for her credit card or for some money she plays hard ball with them. After awhile they get pissed off and hang up.

There was one time when someone woman was trying to sell her some fake vacation/cruise package in Florida. Everything was going great until they asked for her CC number.

Mom: "Why should I give you my CC number?"

Scammer: "You don't want this great vacation package?"

Mom: "She asks the same question."

Scammer: "You realise I will have to give this someone else?"

Mom: "I don't care who you give it too, you're not getting my CC number."

Scammer: She gets a bit hostile with her asking how she could turn down such a great offer. More to the point that deals like this don't come up very often.

Mom: "There's no need to raise your voice, I can hear just fine. If this trip is so great why don't you take it yourself?"

Scammer: "Okay. You don't know what you're missing .Click"

Why would anyone want to waste their time with scammers? I just hang up.

[Fuzz]

My wife's grandma just got scammed out of $20k. We don't really know the details becuase she is to ashamed to talk about it. These people should be hunted down and hung from their toenails. I call it "toenail justice".

[Sliver]

Originally Posted by IGGYFORMVP

Hi all just thought I would write a quick CP PSA for everyone here with elderly parents.

Yesterday I stopped by my Dad's place on a whim to see how he was doing. He is 74 and lives independently. He was on the phone giving google play card pin numbers to scammers out of India. They posed as bank employees and police, and he believed he was helping to catch criminals.

To make a long story short he was scammed out of over $25000 in the last three days. If I never happened to catch him in the act I imagine they would have cleaned him out of ever last dollar.

PLEASE if you have an elderly parent be very aware at how easily this can happen. I would highly recommend ensuring they only have one credit card with a reasonable limit.

He had 7 credit cards with well over $100 000 worth of credit available. Which is absolutely ridiculous for a man who put about $200 a month on his cards.

If this post saves even one CP member the bull#### we are going thru I think this post it worth it.

There is a special spot in hell for those who target the elderly with scams.

That sucks.

It totally caught me off guard for you to refer to a 74-year-old as elderly, though. My mom is 72 and just doesn't seem like an old person at all.

[IGGYFORMVP]

Originally Posted by Sliver

That sucks.

It totally caught me off guard for you to refer to a 74-year-old as elderly, though. My mom is 72 and just doesn't seem like an old person at all.

To be fair my farther also had a extremely bad quad accident 12 years ago that left him with a lot of health issues that aged him prematurely.

One of the things I have noticed with a couple of my other elderly uncles is that things can change so quick. That's why I think its important to get things like credit under control before things start to go south.

If you wait until they show signs that there mental capabilities are failing it may be to late to protect them.

Also scammers like to call at all hours. The phone in my dads house rang all night until midnight and started again at 5 am the next morning. This leads to even more confusion as they run the seniors to exhaustion.