I do not think a week goes by when one of my elderly parents doesn’t mention a strange phone call. They are always disconcerting and often scary, and older adult are prime targets. An excellent article, Die, Robocalls, Die: A How-to Guide to Stop Spammers and Extract Revenge, appeared this week in the Washington Post. The … Continue reading
Filed under scams …
College Loan & IRS Scams — I Received Both Phone Calls Today
As if there are not enough scams, here’s another one — a college loan scam. I haven’t had college loans for years and years, but I am wondering if there will soon be a parent or grandparent component to the scam. Anyway, one more caller with malicious intent to be aware of when you answer … Continue reading
The Scams that Scare Grandparents About Their Grandkids
Recently a friend of mine told me about the grandparent scam. She described receiving a call at her home from a person who claimed to have a message from their granddaughter. The caller told my friend was that her granddaughter was stranded in a foreign country and desperately needed financial help. Another friend of mine, a granddad, received a call from a hysterical female … Continue reading
IRS Scam Phone … Watch Out!
The woman on the phone recording was serious and calm, but she said that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) was calling me with my last warning. I was told to press a number to speak with a live person and there might be a penalty if I did not answer. And yes, this woman sounded like she knew what … Continue reading
A Great Infographic on Scams: Print, Put Together & Post
Keeping ahead of scams — a perplexing and frustrating problem. Almost every day at my house the phone rings with a suspicious caller. It’s the same at my parents home. It used to be that people needed to worry about door-to-door and telephone scams, but now there are many more. We need to caution our aging parents (and … Continue reading
Why Can’t We Do Something About Phone Scams???
I detest scam telephone calls, and I am specially upset about how these scammers take advantage of elders. I am off work during much of the time this week, and today alone I’ve received three scam telephone calls — two from the people who claimed that my Microsoft Windows has a glitch and one from Rachel … Continue reading
Windows Security Message Fraud Telephone Calls — It Finally Happened to Me!
I am so excited that I received this scam phone call so I can share exactly what happened! Lots of these calls come during the day when senior adults are at home. The phone rings. The phone caller identifies himself as a Microsoft security officer and tells me that my computer is sending out messages to … Continue reading
Watch Out for Unexpected Recurring Charges on a Parent’s Credit Card
Over dinner at my parents’ house recently my mother commented that a recurring charge appeared on her Mastercard statement every month for at least a year. “I have no idea what it is,” she said. She had been checking her bills and was unsure about what to do. I looked at the bill and sure … Continue reading
Scams Aimed at Boomers, Too
Although we worry most about scams aimed at aging parents, adult children need to be sure that they, too, have the wherewithal to avoid victimization. Check out the blog feature Top Scams Targeting Baby Boomers During the Government Shutdown over at EmaxHealth, an independent health news organization. The post, by Kathleen Blanchard, details some of the creative ways that … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age 