Adult children who support aging parents and their personal computers need to be aware of a threat that can pop up on a computer anytime and cause major problems if a person does not understand how to handle the threat. Our parents need to hear about this potential problem. The other day I was working on … Continue reading
Tagged with scams …
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
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
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
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
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
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
Scams and Seniors: Redux
I cannot get Rachel from Credit Card Services to stop calling me. She has such a lovely voice, and she always tells me that there is no problem with my credit card. But then she continues on, encouraging me to talk to one of her colleagues about lowering credit card interest rates. Moreover, it will … 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
As Our Parents Age So Do We 