Scams Victimizing Seniors

#idtheft
It comes around periodically. A scam where a senior citizen gets a phone call from either a young person claiming to be a grandson, or someone who says they are an attorney representing the grandson, saying that the grandparent needs to wire some money to bail out the grandchild. Because of social media posting, it isn't difficult for the scammer to get enough personal information to make the scam believable.  Many seniors get taken for thousands of dollars with this scam.  If you get such a call, investigate! Don't promise to wire any money until you can talk to the parents.  Maybe not even then.  Don't become a victim.

Another telephone scam that hits seniors is someone representing Medicare or the IRS calls to say that someone has fraudulently used the senior's information, then asks to verify the Social Security Number.  Understand that these agencies never call.  You will get a letter instead.  Always refuse to cooperate, then call the real agency directly with a known number.  If it is a fraud, they will want to know any details you can share.

A variant of this scam is when someone "from local government" calls to say the senior citizen has not shown up for jury duty, and the senior is to purchase a pre-paid charge card, and when called back, read off the card numbers to pay off the fine.  This may seem to be an obvious scam, but many seniors, who trust government officials, fall victim to it.

I'd encourage everyone to get identity theft protection, either from IDShield (http://IDT.nscky.com), Zander Insurance, or Lifelock.  Along with protecting and restoration, agents are available to advise you about these kinds of calls.

Comments

  1. UnknownJanuary 21, 2018 at 10:46 AM

    Another example of this: http://www.kob.com/albuquerque-news/grandmother-startled-avoids-potential-scam-when-caller-identifies-himself-as-a-relative/4751992/

    ReplyDelete

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