I can’t believe it. My friend got scammed.

[am1]

We had to take away mom's land line because of this.

Anyone could call her, claiming to be the IRS. And she would do ANYTHING they told her to do. "Tell us the names, social security numbers, date of birth, place of birth of all your children and grandchildren."

We told her dozens of times, the IRS doesn't call. They write letters. Or the come by in person if they're really upset. Didn't matter. Next time the phone rang, she was singing like a canary and asking her bank branch manager for funds to send to the IRS to avoid a fine. She completely lost all logic and reason the minute someone on the phone said "IRS."

It would be nice if the infotainment "news" stations pounded information about scams into their "Blather & Friends" programs. Because their target market could use the information.

The IRS has that affect on people. Sad coming from a place that resorted to terrorism to avoid paying taxes.

 

[GT75]

This is very timely. Be careful of email phishing schemes.

Thank you for that video. I could see myself falling victim to that scam.

 

[Patri]

This is very timely. Be careful of email phishing schemes.

Very good video.

 

[TheTimeTraveler]

My grandma was frauded by someone on the phone and then she had to mail them stuff so it was mail fraud. The FBI was involved.

This is important for everyone to realize.

Using the US Mail system to promote or do anything illegal is considered mail fraud. The US Postal Inspection Service is very interested in processing mail fraud and it is considered a Federal Crime. Their conviction rate is extremely high when they get their hands on the persons involved.












.

 

[ScoopKona]

I got hit with the "grandson in jail" scam last year.

Phone rang. I have to answer because it's the business phone. (I hate this part of owning a small business.)

"Is this [Your Real Name], from [Your business]?"

Me: Yes.

"This is Officer Stadenko from the El Paso POLICE. Your grandson was arrested on drug charges and has asked for you to send $5,000 bail." (The caller ID said unknown. Not El Paso.)

Me, who has no grandchildren: Little Jimmy's in trouble?

"Yes, sir. I'm afraid so. James is in a LOT of trouble."

Me: Good! I hope he rots in jail. And tell him I hope he gets busted for that car he stole in Cheyenne. Tell him this is what he gets for stealing money from the sugar bowl.

 

[emeryjre]

What is painful in these discussions is the fact we all know someone who is or has been the victim of a deceitful method to take money from someone
This is why scams are growing
As the boomers age
They are becoming more susceptible to lies
The government can do its best to shut down boiler rooms, go after fraudsters etc.,etc
But at the end of the day, the persons being scammed think they are doing the right thing
Some cannot be stopped by friends or family
That does not mean we shouldn't continue to do our best to help them avoid being taken

 

[ScoopKona]

The government can do its best to shut down boiler rooms, go after fraudsters etc.,etc

Can you point to a single example where anything at all is happening?

Now let's go to food fraud, which affects everyone who buys food. (So, basically everyone except children.) 60% of the olive oil on the shelves is fraudulent. Most people don't know any better. But those who do, are stuck navigating a labyrinth of bogus oils. Same with balsamic vinegar, "truffle" oil, honey, maple syrup and a LOT of coffee. No enforcement. No citations. No consumer education.

It's the wild-wild-west. And the people who don't know it's the wild-wild-west are being scammed left and right.

 

[DrQ]

It's one thing to be scammed by text or a disembodied voice over the phone, but now deepfake technology now can impersonate celebrities and loved ones with near perfection based off data gleaned from social media:

She thought she was flirting with her favorite celebrity. A heartbreaking deepfake scam cost her everything​

 

[emeryjre]

Can you point to a single example where anything at all is happening?

Now let's go to food fraud, which affects everyone who buys food. (So, basically everyone except children.) 60% of the olive oil on the shelves is fraudulent. Most people don't know any better. But those who do, are stuck navigating a labyrinth of bogus oils. Same with balsamic vinegar, "truffle" oil, honey, maple syrup and a LOT of coffee. No enforcement. No citations. No consumer education.

It's the wild-wild-west. And the people who don't know it's the wild-wild-west are being scammed left and right.

I said they can do their best
I certainly didn’t mean to imply they do
I won’t go down that path further here at TUG

 

[davidvel]

I got hit with the "grandson in jail" scam last year.

Phone rang. I have to answer because it's the business phone. (I hate this part of owning a small business.)

"Is this [Your Real Name], from [Your business]?"

Me: Yes.

"This is Officer Stadenko from the El Paso POLICE. Your grandson was arrested on drug charges and has asked for you to send $5,000 bail." (The caller ID said unknown. Not El Paso.)

Me, who has no grandchildren: Little Jimmy's in trouble?

"Yes, sir. I'm afraid so. James is in a LOT of trouble."

Me: Good! I hope he rots in jail. And tell him I hope he gets busted for that car he stole in Cheyenne. Tell him this is what he gets for stealing money from the sugar bowl.

Oh Coffee Man, if only everyone, especially the elderly and mentally compromised, could be so perfect and resistant to fraud as you, the world would be a better place.

 

[davidvel]

Can you point to a single example where anything at all is happening?

Now let's go to food fraud, which affects everyone who buys food. (So, basically everyone except children.) 60% of the olive oil on the shelves is fraudulent. Most people don't know any better. But those who do, are stuck navigating a labyrinth of bogus oils. Same with balsamic vinegar, "truffle" oil, honey, maple syrup and a LOT of coffee. No enforcement. No citations. No consumer education.

It's the wild-wild-west. And the people who don't know it's the wild-wild-west are being scammed left and right.

Oh the horrors, oil fraud is so comparable to this thread where a person was scammed by fraudsters out of thousands of cash.

Your example is people who don't know any better paying too much for oils that are not worth the price because they are not the "high end" oils but don't actually know that they are not what they think they are buying, and tell all their friends they are eating the "high end" oils. Silly.

Totally different, but consistent with your: people are so stupid, they buy crap at Costco, eat at crappy Vegas restaurants, don't just buy a cheap basic ticket to Europe and then figure out a cheap place to stay in the countryside when they get there, they should spend their precious time on the islands running all over trying to get local grocery food and making their own meals wasting hours.

In other words, do as Coffee Guy says or you are stupid. So self righteous, yet so on point for coffee guy.

 

[Brett]

What is painful in these discussions is the fact we all know someone who is or has been the victim of a deceitful method to take money from someone
This is why scams are growing
As the boomers age
They are becoming more susceptible to lies
The government can do its best to shut down boiler rooms, go after fraudsters etc.,etc
But at the end of the day, the persons being scammed think they are doing the right thing
Some cannot be stopped by friends or family
That does not mean we shouldn't continue to do our best to help them avoid being taken

yes, practically everyone is (or will be) affected by fraud.
We had to restrict my mother's finances and telephone usage. Even the caregivers were running scams.
Government agencies can only do so much and the funding for those agencies has substantially decreased

But when the fraudsters come for me ....

 

[rapmarks]

I had to remove landlines from the house as my husbands dementia worsened. It left him no means of contact, as he could not learn to use a cell phone.
My brother in law has dementia and still has a cell phone. A window replacement salesmen showed up at their home. Apparently my brother in law saw the ad and called them and invited them out. The salesman was quite upset, he had driven about 90 minutes.

Two of my sisters were scammed.
Somehow the one got the $10000 back from her bank that was sent to Olive Oyl in Thailand . The hackers had accessed her computer and her bank account, how was never made clear.
The other sister was called by Apple to tell her her phone was hacked and the hackers were listening to all her conversations. She was not to tell her family about it and not to use her phone. She was to await the call back and they would fix it when she gave them all her passwords. She believed the entire story. When I heard about it, I put a stop to it.

 

[rapmarks]

We have a community Facebook group.
I thought something was strange about a woman who kept posting about getting her air ducts cleaned. Three times in ten days, trying to get a group together
Today someone posted that someone used her profile last year to scam people with an air duct cleaning scheme

 

[ScoopKona]

I said they can do their best
I certainly didn’t mean to imply they do
I won’t go down that path further here at TUG

I wish they WOULD do their best.

Their best would include:

• Not being able to hide behind fake Caller ID info.
• Not being able to spoof area codes
• A "411" type number which lets callers send an automated complaint about the last number which called them (if the same number keeps popping up millions of times each day, law enforcement should do something about that.
• A do-not-call list with teeth (no carving out exemptions for religions and campaigns. The "I ain't asking" do not call list. I hang up on more than half of incoming calls because it's "Help with your Google business information" scammers.
• Prosecuting and incarcerating white-collar crime with the same enthusiasm as other crimes -- A convicted scammer should face harsher sentences than a drug dealer. And none of this "country-club prison" crapola. Send them to Rikers and San Quentin with the rest of the lowlifes.

 

[DrQ]

I wish they WOULD do their best.

Their best would include:

• Not being able to hide behind fake Caller ID info.
• Not being able to spoof area codes
• A "411" type number which lets callers send an automated complaint about the last number which called them (if the same number keeps popping up millions of times each day, law enforcement should do something about that.
• A do-not-call list with teeth (no carving out exemptions for religions and campaigns. The "I ain't asking" do not call list. I hang up on more than half of incoming calls because it's "Help with your Google business information" scammers.
• Prosecuting and incarcerating white-collar crime with the same enthusiasm as other crimes -- A convicted scammer should face harsher sentences than a drug dealer. And none of this "country-club prison" crapola. Send them to Rikers and San Quentin with the rest of the lowlifes.

ALL this doesn't mean spit because the bad actors are overseas. They are effectively out of reach. "Do not call lists" are like what an uncle described padlocks to me when I was young - "They keep honest people honest." We can locate the scammer call centers in South Asia, but if their government does nothing Then there are state sponsored hackers/bad actors

Tariffs?

 

[JanT]

Patri, I'm so sorry this happened to your friend. Incredibly frightening and sad. Just absolutely unbelievable the level of evil that exists now.

I'm so suspicious by nature, I'd like to think I'd never fall for some scam but when I get older and perhaps have dementia? That scares the Hell out of me. I'll be turning it all over to my daughter if I find out I have dementia. Just can't take a chance on anything happening.

 

[emeryjre]

I wish they WOULD do their best.

Their best would include:

• Not being able to hide behind fake Caller ID info.
• Not being able to spoof area codes
• A "411" type number which lets callers send an automated complaint about the last number which called them (if the same number keeps popping up millions of times each day, law enforcement should do something about that.
• A do-not-call list with teeth (no carving out exemptions for religions and campaigns. The "I ain't asking" do not call list. I hang up on more than half of incoming calls because it's "Help with your Google business information" scammers.
• Prosecuting and incarcerating white-collar crime with the same enthusiasm as other crimes -- A convicted scammer should face harsher sentences than a drug dealer. And none of this "country-club prison" crapola. Send them to Rikers and San Quentin with the rest of the lowlifes.

There is too much overlap between "legitimate" organizations and scammers to have any of these rules really work
Especially the prosecution and incarceration of white-collar crime
But in an ideal world, we could sort out the scammers from the Time Share Sales types
But the time share salesperson is only responsible for what is signed
Not the lies used to get the signature

 

[davidvel]

ALL this doesn't mean spit because the bad actors are overseas. They are effectively out of reach. "Do not call lists" are like what an uncle described padlocks to me when I was young - "They keep honest people honest." We can locate the scammer call centers in South Asia, but if their government does nothing Then there are state sponsored hackers/bad actors

Tariffs?

There is too much overlap between "legitimate" organizations and scammers to have any of these rules really work
Especially the prosecution and incarceration of white-collar crime
But in an ideal world, we could sort out the scammers from the Time Share Sales types
But the time share salesperson is only responsible for what is signed
Not the lies used to get the signature

You are both 100% correct, and he has literally ZERO understanding of the technology. None of this is even remotely possible if we want to allow someone to call someone else who they have never called before. Will the tech evolve? Of course. But "They" and "their" have no ability to instantly rewrite the worldwide technology standards that allow our communications to occur, if it was even possible to implement.

 

[chriskre]

We had to take away mom's land line because of this.

Anyone could call her, claiming to be the IRS. And she would do ANYTHING they told her to do. "Tell us the names, social security numbers, date of birth, place of birth of all your children and grandchildren."

We told her dozens of times, the IRS doesn't call. They write letters. Or the come by in person if they're really upset. Didn't matter. Next time the phone rang, she was singing like a canary and asking her bank branch manager for funds to send to the IRS to avoid a fine. She completely lost all logic and reason the minute someone on the phone said "IRS."

It would be nice if the infotainment "news" stations pounded information about scams into their "Blather & Friends" programs. Because their target market could use the information.

I don't know what it is with the 80 plus crowd.
My mom is petrified of the IRS.
If I get anything from the IRS she panics.
I own a business so they send me notices every now and then and she freaks out.
She insists on opening my mail which since having to move in with her irks me but
she treats me like a 10 year old but that's another issue so she sees an "official
business use" envelope and instant panic.
I've asked her not to open anything that's for my business but she just can't help herself. LOL

 

[dioxide45]

I don't know what it is with the 80 plus crowd.
My mom is petrified of the IRS.
If I get anything from the IRS she panics.
I own a business so they send me notices every now and then and she freaks out.
She insists on opening my mail which since having to move in with her irks me but
she treats me like a 10 year old but that's another issue so she sees an "official
business use" envelope and instant panic.
I've asked her not to open anything that's for my business but she just can't help herself. LOL

You could consider a PO box.

 

[chriskre]

You could consider a PO box.

I have it going to my office but when I bring it home she gets in my stuff.
It's complicated. LOL

 

[rapmarks]

I don't know what it is with the 80 plus crowd.
My mom is petrified of the IRS.
If I get anything from the IRS she panics.
I own a business so they send me notices every now and then and she freaks out.
She insists on opening my mail which since having to move in with her irks me but
she treats me like a 10 year old but that's another issue so she sees an "official
business use" envelope and instant panic.
I've asked her not to open anything that's for my business but she just can't help herself. LOL

People who earn minimal income are convinced they need a cpa to do their 1040, it’s no wonder they are petrified; they were also convinced that if the IRS increased staff, they were going to come after them.

 

[chriskre]

People who earn minimal income are convinced they need a cpa to do their 1040, it’s no wonder they are petrified.

She doesn't even file taxes anymore but she's paranoid the IRS will take our house with any notice that comes.
I can see why people fall for these scams. I'm on the phone with the IRS at least once or twice a year so I
don't panic with every notice, not that I like to get correspondence from them because it's never nice but I
don't panic like she does.

 

[jp10558]

Oh the horrors, oil fraud is so comparable to this thread where a person was scammed by fraudsters out of thousands of cash.

Your example is people who don't know any better paying too much for oils that are not worth the price because they are not the "high end" oils but don't actually know that they are not what they think they are buying, and tell all their friends they are eating the "high end" oils. Silly.

Totally different, but consistent with your: people are so stupid, they buy crap at Costco, eat at crappy Vegas restaurants, don't just buy a cheap basic ticket to Europe and then figure out a cheap place to stay in the countryside when they get there, they should spend their precious time on the islands running all over trying to get local grocery food and making their own meals wasting hours.

In other words, do as Coffee Guy says or you are stupid. So self righteous, yet so on point for coffee guy.

Normally I wouldn't defend him, but (though a tangent to this thread) I do agree that one really useful thing that government should be doing (and implies to us it is doing) is making sure the labels on things are accurate. No one can make reasonable choices if they don't even know what they're choosing between. Thinking that an oil is one thing when it's something completely different is an issue. Yes, being vegetable oil vs olive oil is usually not catastrophic, but it hurts honest producers and can certainly be an issue in certain allergy situations. Also, if they "get away" with it in olive oils, who's to say they don't replace it with something actually widely dangerous but somehow cheaper and looks the same?