Scammers almost got my mom ...

[CRJR45]

They cold called her and said "Grandma I'm in trouble" , so she answered "Jake , what's wrong ?"
They gave her a story that he was in an accident and she needed to call an attorney right now and wire some money , $9000 .
She called the Atty , and he gave her a longer version , "Jake" had caused an accident and the lady he hit was pregnant and if she lost her baby "Jake" would be facing manslaughter .
She freaked and left for the bank , but went by my nieces house so she stopped to get her to drive and the neice figured it out .
They called the cops and they said it happens every day , the last person lost $30, 000 .
Freakin POS's , what a crazy world we live in .

 

[MThuntr]

My dad never gave money over the phone but I know he got caught in an email password scam and at least one internet/antivirus expiration scam. I'm convinced he was watching spicy content on the computer and they got him with a pop-up window. They target Boomers for a reason.

 

[Rhcuam]

It is truly amazing how many times scams like this work. The porn site virus scams also gets a lot of older men.That and online boyfriend/girlfriend scams.
A guy could make a pretty good living getting a handful of people a year. Had a case where a gentleman lost everything. Probably close to $350,000, even sold his house so he could continue to send money to his online girlfriend.

 

[Beignet]

They tried to get my grandfather a few years back. Called and said his grandson was "in trouble in Memphis." He was ready to go to the bank but ultimately didn't take the bait. I was in the backcountry out of cell service so it lent credibility to their claim when he couldn't reach me.

I had to remind him that I'd been enough of a rabble-rouser in my teens to be perfectly comfortable with calling my parents from the police station instead of going through him, hahaha.

 

[fwagner]

They cold called her and said "Grandma I'm in trouble" , so she answered "Jake , what's wrong ?"
They gave her a story that he was in an accident and she needed to call an attorney right now and wire some money , $9000 .
She called the Atty , and he gave her a longer version , "Jake" had caused an accident and the lady he hit was pregnant and if she lost her baby "Jake" would be facing manslaughter .
She freaked and left for the bank , but went by my nieces house so she stopped to get her to drive and the neice figured it out .
They called the cops and they said it happens every day , the last person lost $30, 000 .
Freakin POS's , what a crazy world we live in .

Exact...I mean EXACT thing happened to my grandma. Person called pretending to me in jail, she went to the bank took 7k$ cash out and sent it overnight. They called again the next day and asked for 9k$ and she went to the bank and luckily the teller, small town, asked questions and even luckier than that a huge winter storm was going on out east which grounded flights making it so she was able to get the money back. I have no problem admitting I would fire bomb everyone of those call centers in a second!

 

[reallyoldman]

CRJR my wife got caught in an identical scam. Our grandson is the air force and they knew enough about him that they had a guy that sounded like him verify the call.. $,9,000 later she caught on !

 

[fishing4sanity]

I hate thieves and there are a ton of these scammers out there. My mother in law got scammed for almost $20k and luckily got the same person when she went back to send even more money or it would have been worse. The scammers had done enough on-line sleuthing to know she had a grandson out of the country and where he was (good ol' social media), of course he was in trouble like these others and unfortunately she was convinced. I think we've convinced my parents to not believe any emails/calls they get without running it by me or my brother first, there have been attempts made but so far they've waited and asked us first. I'd be open to allowing SWAT and military teams to practice with these scum.

 

[jvanhoy]

I always wondered how stuff like this happened till they got my daughter a few months ago. She is 19 and was a shift manager at Starbucks. Someone called and impersonated a LEO from her bosses phone number. Said they had her boss there at the station and they had deposited some counterfeit money. Convinced her to take 2k from the store and buy gift cards from various stores and give them the number to deposit the money back. I felt so bad for her. She felt so stupid after it was all over and was bawling crying. They let her work for a few weeks before letting her go. The real LEOs told her it happens all the time. I would love to have 5 minutes alone with the person that called her.

 

[devon deer]

They are complete scum, until we added extra security on my MIL phone line (she is in her 90's) she was getting calls on an almost daily basis, mainly from India, but Nigeria even had a go via email.
A woman rang when I was there, I answered and took the part of a frail 90 year old, I had great fun stringing them along, in the end I did something to really upset her, I mean really upset her, I asked her if she believed in god 'of course', I said 'have you had of Karma?' well bad Karma is coming your way and hung up.
She rang back swearing, I returned the favour!

The scum bags rarely get caught, but they should be made an example of when they do.
I have watched on Youtube 'when scammers get caught' and some incredibly intelligent guys take over the scammers PC in their office, they go into panic mode big time, with the IP address their details are passed on to the police but they never post an outcome.

As for the internet, don't take people on face (internet) value unless you know them

 

[Moserkr]

MIL got taken for $1100 trying to buy a husky puppy online. Luckily my LEO FIL figured it out before she paid in full. Loss was just the deposit.

I get scam attempts daily and a recent one was elaborate. They had a lot of my information, but much of it was outdated. Said I owed money in collections to a company Im contracted with. Well, the money I get paid doesnt flow in a way that could ever get to collections. They used an address from years ago. But their website and emails were legit looking. Didnt get me and now they stopped but it was sadly impressive. Tried to get me for around $1200.

Feel really bad for people who get scammed, and wish they would hand out some severe penalties for it.

 

[brymoore]

My mom has got caught twice. I got her out of both of them. I forget the circumstances of the first, but she called me before hitting send and I stopped her.

Second one she had bought a new Apple computer. Next day she gets an “Apple” email to do an update. She emails with them and agrees to buy GameStop gift card for payment. She starts to wonder, calls me to chat and I stop her again.

Next step to the saga is she has GameStop gift card to return. She goes back to the store, tries to explain the situation and mentions Fraud. GameStop kid follows procedures and freezes her card. Ugh. She tried twice to unfreeze but everyone repeats that GameStop can’t pay Fraud cards.

I’m back trying to help her. Call GameStop, explain the situation and that my mom worded it incorrectly. No Fraud. I get No. OK, I need your boss. Next guy says No. Ok, I need your boss. He says he’s the top guy, I can’t speak with anyone else. Hangs up on me. Ok. I call the corporate office and set an afternoon appointment with the CFO. Explain the situation to his assistant.

Mom gets a call a few minutes later and her money was refunded.

I told her a third time and I’m invoking power of attorney.

 

[Dakotakid]

Neighbor lady got the call that her social security had been used to launder money and she needed to return it. She went to the bank to who gave her some of it. Stopped by my place headed to the post office. She was on the phone with the thief. Thief screamed profanity and hung up.

Crazy world.

 

[Southern Elk]

There’s a special place in hell for folks that pray on the elderly.

 

[LuketheDog]

My wife has a patient who is an sweet old lady and a recent widow, she's been taken TWICE by phone scammers since her husband died, I feel so bad for her

 

[CRJR45]

Yeah , we are letting her cool down , she got very upset and felt stupid , but my brother and I talked about a two party system for her banking . Maybe make the Niece POA , not sure how mom will take it , she doesn't take advice very well , LOL

 

[The_Jim]

My grandma lost 220,000 out of retirement accounts and they were trying to borrow money against her house when my parents were finally able to get a conservatorship pushed through. The only reason they found out that anything was happening was when her financial advisor finally refused to keep giving her money. These guys were using her bank account to funnel money through, always promising to pay back more. She was in so deep that a federal officer that works with fraud showed up at her house one day. Turns out she has the early stages of dementia, and these guys took complete advantage of it.

After watching all of this happen, I feel that putting your estate in a conservatorship in your later years is an excellent way to protect your assets. Might be something for you guys to look into.

 

[David58]

Answered the phone to a hysterical woman, crying, they have me they have me. Man comes on, explains that he has kidnapped my wife, is part of the Sinaloa Cartel, and demanded $40K. While he is giving me the details, I call my wife on the other cell phone and her response is that she can't talk she's at work. Told the POS that he was a POS and hung up.

Part of me wanted to go meet the asshole. With my friends that know shit.

GRRRR!

David
NM

 

[Stocker]

My grandpa got the same call about me that I was in trouble in Mexico while I was actually in Mexico. He didn’t even think about giving them money so I know what I’m valued at. 0

 

[Southern Elk]

My grandpa got the same call about me that I was in trouble in Mexico while I was actually in Mexico. He didn’t even think about giving them money so I know what I’m valued at. 0

Sounds like my grandpa. He would have told them I shouldn’t have had my a$$ in Mexico anyway.

 

[Four22]

Could you imagine how great the world would be if people used their deceit for good rather than bad!