"Hi Grandma, this is your favorite grandson and I need your help."
"This is Sammy?"
You have just been sucked into one of the most common scams of the elderly going on right now. You have already given out to much information. The caller can now go to Facebook to get personal information about your grandson, like his birthday.
Scamming the elderly is atrocious and if I wasn't a pacifist I support the death penalty for those that take advantage of one of the most vulnerable sections of our populations.
Lottery scams, paving your drive way or putting on a new roof scam, deceptive professionals, bereavement sacmes where callers try to collect debts of a dead spouse, Medicare scams, work from home scams, fake investment opportunities, and the list goes on.
Right now your elderly friend, your elderly neighbor, or elderly relatives could be on the phone right now being a victim to the lastest scam, the gram-scam. Read about it here:
http://blog.oregonlive.com/complaintdesk/2010/09/gram-scam_cons_seniors_for_a_9.html
Pay close attention to the shaded boxes next to the article where there is some tips on how to handle a suspicious call and how to clean up your online information.
Once you have read about the gram-scam checkout the next article that will let you know what other scams are out there being used to bilk millions of dollars nationwide and worldwide out of our elderly:
http://www.eagletribune.com/newhampshire/x329609411/More-scam-artists-targeting-the-elderly
How can we help? Although the following article is advising how to help keep your parents safe it has some useful information that you can use to help your elderly neighbor, friends, or relatives:
http://www.ehow.com/how_2163226_protect-elderly-parents-scams.html
Here are my added tips. Be a good neighbor. Checkout on your elderly neighbor frequently. Even a phone call helps. How much time does that take? Be a good friend. Check on your friends as often as possible, stop by and have a cup of coffee with them. Trust me, they will be happy to see you. Be aware. Aware of your surroundings and aware of the phone calls you are getting. If you are getting suspicious calls report them to the police. Notify your neighbors and friends of the calls. Even if there is the slightest doubt that the call is a scam report it, better safe than sorry.
Your comments are appreciated. Do you have any tips that you would like to add?
WHO AM I
While my birthplace is in question, the year is 1798. I died in 1853. Bill has heard of me but didn't know anything about me. My dad was a Baptist minister. My mother was the son of a Baptist minister. My stepfather was a captain. I was the youngest of seven children, five brothers and a sister besides me. I also had six stepbrothers and three stepsisters. I learned in a one room schoolhouse. I was also the first, first to come from an impoverished family. Although dad died early he left us a rich educational legacy. I received an excellent education simultaneously from my mother at home, and her brother in the schoolroom. That is were a love of reading literature was borne in me, I also became proficient in math, government, history, philosophy and geography. Before marrying my love I was a public school teacher. At age thirty I married my man at the home of my brother. I met my husband when he came to enroll for a more substantial education at the Academy where I was teaching. He was an indentured servant in farming, accounting, chopping wood for lumber and making cloth. His poverty and discipline for self-knowledge mirrored my own experience and ambition. When he abruptly left for family matters he was to poor to visit me so we did not see each other for three years but kept in touch by letter. In the interim, he apprenticed to a lawyer, began to teach professionally and was able to begin a law practice. We married and had two children, one of each. Hubby went on to become second in command before becoming head honcho. I didn't not attend his VP Inauguration. He became head honcho upon the death of the main man. When I became the first I received the unusual distinction of being referred to in the press by my first name. Many notes of appreciation will attest that I was attentive to citizens who needed my genuine help. I was always with the boss at public ceremonies. During my time I became friends with Washington Irving, Charles Dickens and William Makepeace Thackeray. The innovation most frequently attributed to me was the newly-created White House library in the second floor oval room. It was said that my hubby never any made important steps without my counsel. When we left the big white house I went back to teaching. If you haven't figured out who I am by not I am not going to fill you with any more details but my husband's last name is contained in this sentence, you just have to put two words separated by three other words together. Who Am I?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I don't have any tips beyond what is in the articles, but I'll sure vote for heavy penalties (maybe not actual death) for people who scam the elderly.
That's one thing I didn't worry about much with my mother when she was independent. She is the most suspicious person in the world, and still tells me not to let go of my purse in her tiny gated assisted living facility because "anyone could just grab it". If I put it on the floor where she can't see it, she stops worrying. About that, at least.
Hi Pat
I'd go for a life sentenance. I just hate these people, especially the bereavement ones.
I also don't worry with my Mom because her mind is still pretty sharpe. However, my sis might eventually end up where she is taken advantage of, I kind of worry about her.
Bill
Hanging is a good option for those who scam the elderly. Ironically, we were approached with "gram scam" a couple years ago. A call, supposedly our grandson, who'd gone to Cuba to work with a buddy and been picked up for DUI and needed $4K bail or he'd go to jail for a year. He used our grandson's name and knew a fair amount about the family. Now, there were some flags, the biggest one being we hadn't seen or heard from him in over a year. He made Himself promise not to call his mother. So Himself said he'd need time to get the money and have it wired. I pointed he had NOT promised not to call Howard, his daughter's SO, which is what we did. Howard told Karen, who called the father and confirmed our grandson was in Miami, as we spoke.
I think the saddest part of this is that the scams are attacking the most vulnerable and least able to afford-the-price segment of our population. People who should be appreciated and respected, rather than treated as prey. While we often don't appreciate the wisdom of our elderly population, others take advantage of their lonliness, their need to be independent and make their own decisions.
Hi DR
What a nightmare with the gram scam you had and thank goodness you checked it out! I don't even consider you elderly and yet they tried it out on you.
You make a great point that the elderly wanting to be independant does make them even more vulnerable.
Bill
Post a Comment