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
Filed under seniors and fraud …
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
iTunes Scam — Watch Out
If you use an iPhone or iPad, be aware that an iTunes scam resurfaces from time-to-time and is again making the rounds People may receive an email that claims to be from the iTunes store. I got it a couple of days ago. The email points out that an individual’s iTunes account has been used to make possibly fraudulent purchases, … 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
A New Twist With Personal Safety Device Scams and Seniors
Adult children should be sure that their parents understand the clever strategies that telephone scammers use as they encourage elders to part with credit card information. Over the past several days I’ve received two phone calls on my home landline, aiming to convince me that I ordered a personal safety device and that it was … Continue reading
Phone Scam About Personal Safety Devices?
It appears that seniors are receiving phone calls that attempt to scare them into making personal safety device purchases with a credit card, and it feels like a scam. I received one yesterday on my mobile phone. An urgent voice asks for a senior citizen noting that break-ins, robbers, medical emergencies or falls are scary … Continue reading
FTC Looking for Ideas to Stop the Likes of Rachel from Credit Services
Are you tired of receiving calls from Rachel at credit card services? Older seniors, your parents perhaps, feel helpless when they receive these manipulative, and illegal telephone calls. During the last few years of her life, my husband’s mother sometimes became quite distressed when she answered the phone and heard Rachel or one of her … Continue reading
More on Financial Scams Aimed at the Elderly
Check out Protecting Elderly from Scams, a July 4, 2012 article in the San Francisco Chronicle. Staying alert for the many troubling phone calls and other communications that elders receive is challenging. Just the other day we received yet another frustrating phone call from credit card services. My past blog post feature links to many … Continue reading
Helping Aging Parents (and Ourselves) Avoid Scams
Read Prime Targets for Spam Artists, Paula Span’s April 20, 2012 column over at the New Old Age Blog. The fact that victims may not report fraud due to embarrassment is troubling and of special concern to adult children. Span posted her second column on the topic, with fraud fighting suggestions, on Monday, April 23, … Continue reading
The Scams of Springtime (and Every Other Season)
I’ve been meaning to encourage people to read a post, Caregivers Need to be Alert to Scams that Target the Elderly, over at the Inside Aging Parent Care blog. It provides an excellent overview of scams that target people in general and seniors in particular. Scammers are sophisticated operators, figuring out where to find elderly, … Continue reading
Scams and Seniors
My amazing 83-year-old mother has not found a technology that she does not want to learn. Computers, scanners, Facebook, mobile phones, printers, e-mail, you name it. Most recently she learned to text — though her texting circle only includes three people — me, and my daughter (her granddaughter), and my cousin, Sandy. So it was … Continue reading
Aging Parents and Telephone Fraud – Five Rules that Protect
I have just hung up the phone on yet another call asking me just to “update” some sort of personal information. Still another caller, a day or two ago, was trying to convince me that I have a problem at my bank (one which I do not use, by the way). A few weeks ago a … Continue reading
As Our Parents Age So Do We 