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So he called me in a panic. This evening Dad [94] got a telephone call saying that someone saw his car go up to a bank and the person driving his car robbed the bank. Dad said he doesn't own a car. The caller then hung up.

But Dad was rattled, as Dad wanted me to find out who had bought his car.... well, his car was donated to a charity a couple of months ago and auctioned off probably for scrap as the car wasn't in good shape. Plus that has no baring on this, as who would know he used to own that car in the first place. I told Dad I still have his license plates, and the State knows the car was "sold" months ago. So don't worry.

Dad was still worried, and I don't blame him, if I got such a call I would be upset, too. Dad asked how did they get his telephone number. I asked Dad, did they call you by your name.... no... then this was a random call by a scammer. I bet if they had hooked Dad to believing this, then would ask for money to keep quiet.

I also finally got into my Dad's email, couldn't believe all the scams that came through. I can see how elders could get caught up in some of these things. Especially ones that pretend to be a bank or credit card.



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These scammers are persistent! My dad has a Caption Call phone because of his poor hearing. I have programmed the phone with everyone's name and number that may call him. He doesn't answer if he doesn't know the caller and I check his messages daily. Last year dad made a $25 donation to a charity (scam) and they sold his name and number. Now he is bombarded with calls from these vultures.
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Sounds like a potential blackmail scam. I.e., car was used in commission of a crime but the caller will keep quiet for $x hush money. It amazes me what some of these criminals come up with.

That might be a new one. Perhaps the free vacation, free money from Nigeria, indigent grandchild, payday loans, alleged IRS criminal action, and who knows what else are being replaced by someone with more nefarious intents, if that's possible.
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I got the IRS scam call - "Jordan" left a message. I was gleeful when I called him back and screamed at him that he was going to h$ll for scamming old people. He hung up on me. But it gave me great personal satisfaction. I reported it on the federal site, but those scammers change their numbers so often, I know it won't do any good. It's just so sad that people fall for that stuff.
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ARRGH.....truly one of my "hot" buttons....scammers in general but esp. scammers preying on Seniors. FF...so sorry....
My Mom was able to stay, w/CG assistance in her condo until almost 91 YO (she's 94 YO now in ALF) but she was getting these calls several years before she had to leave her condo.
She still gets these calls. We (sibs) stay at the condo when visiting Mom and I am constantly amazed when I'm there at the number of "scam" calls. What's worse, now being an election year, are the number of political calls....and these people start at 7AM!!!
Mom's got these "talking" phones....they robotically read out the caller ID info and then any message..... I am on the best day crabby before my coffee.....can't tell you how P.O'd I am when I'm trying to take my first sip and plan a "busy" day dealing w/Mom'affairs only to be assaulted by the robo message from some politico....
Up North we have Amber Alerts for missing children....every time I drive to Mom's, I-75 is full of Silver Alerts for missing elders....SW FL is the elder scammers' paradise....
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My mother refused to get new hearing aids for several years - didn't want to spend the money because "I'll be dead soon". It drove my brother crazy - trying to have a conversation with her. I just got use to practically yelling when I visited. Anyhow - in hind sight it was a blessing in disguise as she could never hear anyone on the phone and would get mad and hang up on everyone. Probably saved her a small fortune from phone scams.
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A few weeks ago, a scammer called my dad and told him that a new company was taking over his telephone service. Dad believed him, for the duration of the phone call, at least, and allowed the scammer to set up a new account for him. That shouldn't have been possible, because the account wasn't in Dad's name. It took hours of telephone time for my husband to resolve the problem. Are others here familiar with the term "shadow work"? Usually it refers to the work that used to be provided by stores, companies, and so on, that now has been shifted to the consumer. But it seems to me that there is lots of caregiving shadow work (e.g., resolving telephone scams, waiting at the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions, talking to doctor's offices about the results of bloodwork). It doesn't count as direct caregiving, but it certainly takes up lots of time and energy.
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I was fortunate that my mom was always had a suspicious nature, even when people she knew were friendlier than usual she always wondered what they were after! lol
My aunt was always sending money off to one of those TV religious programs. She thought they had a personal relationship with her because the form letters for donations were set up to look like personal letters, with her name included in the body of the text. (rolling my eyes)
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Cwillie - my mom was so convinced that the charity requests were written personally to her. Because the letter started off with "Dear Sap" - not really "Sap" but you know what I mean. Anyhow - they'd throw in a pic of the animal or child and my mother was convinced THAT was her animal/child - the one she personally saved. My mom was an exceptional smart woman - well educated, but nothing I said or did could convince her otherwise. The part that really got me was that mom had been so tight with her money all her life - Depression era scarred. In stead of "pinching her pennies" I always said mom could make a dime scream. Yet there she was, writting upwards of forty checks a month to these charities. My mom even sent money to a pig "sanctuary". Really?!!!
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My sig other ran into a scam that at first he thought was real.... he got a text saying it was from Verizon and that his account was credited by $400.00. In the text there were links he could click on, but on his flip phone he can't do that. Thank goodness otherwise he might have got into that link.

Lo and behold I got a regular email saying Verizon and had a different dollar amount. Got to admit, the email looked legit, but it did lack certain information that a legit email would contain.

So, anyway, before of that if you see something similar. The red flag for me is to look at the returning email address, usually it doesn't sound correct.
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We get the calls from the "FBI' or IRS... always some man named "John" with a very heavy accent... not to offend anyone. I let one go on and on one day,, then I told him he was no more from the the IRS than I was michelle Obama.. OMG he cused me out.. threatened me.. you name it! Got my jollies for the day.. but I can see where they scare people.
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Angie, that kind of unauthorized phone service transfer was occurring more frequently several years ago. I believe it was happening between what was then one of the Bells and MCI. I wasn't aware it's still occurring.

Those "personalized" letters are done easily with "mail merge". A merger code is inserted at specific points in the master letter, the computer operator/secretary prints and out come probably hundreds of letters, all personalized.

Mail merge was one of the functions I learned when I took a basic computer class back in the mid 90's.

FF, those phishing scams used to be prevalent with major banks and online retailers. I received I don't know how many phishers advising that my account with (Amazon, e-Bay, PayPal, this bank and that bank, and on and on) had been compromised and I needed to confirm my account number with them. Ha! Try again, scumbags.

I reported them to the real retailers for them to handle since it was an attempted fraud against them as well as me.
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Hunh! Just watched CBS evening news and they did a story on the IRS phone and email scams. Profiled this cute little 11YO girl who answered the phone and said she was terrified that her parents were going to go to jail based on what this guy was telling her.
Luckily, Mom was home, intercepted the call and recognized it as a scam. BUT....Mom acknowledged that if she hadn't been there....she wasn't sure that her daughter wouldn't have started giving credit card or bank account info out....that's how terrified the poor kid was.....jeez....
Apparently, these IRS scams are up 400+% over last year....IRS dude interviewed referred to these scammers as "extremely adaptive" criminals....pretty apt, I think...
Well, at least a national news program gave some attention to the issue.
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These scams are never tired of trying to steal our money. My grandmother got weird calls from someone claimed to be from the IRS yesterday. I checked the number on Google and found that dozens of people have reported them as scammer at http://whycall.me. I told her that it's just a scam, and to not pick up a call from number she doesn't recognize. It seems like we should always help our elderly parents/grandparents to stay away from these thieves.
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The worst is when I get a call from my OWN number? ??

How the heck do they do that?
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I am part of a volunteer team that educates people in my community on financial issues. The scam issue got so bad that the Not for profit was paid by the county to develop a session on senior scams . We conducted this program across the county. At each session I led, I asked if anyone had been apporached with a scam. Almost always, EVERYONE raised their hand. And, during each session there was at least one person who had been scammed or had a close friend/relative who had been scammed. It is a MAJOR issue. Part of the aging process is losing the wariness filter!!!

I have posted this info before, but here it is again. nomorobodotcom allows you to enter your phone number and it stops all robo calls. The phone rings once and is intercepted (who knows how) and the call is terminated. I set it up on my phone and we get 10+ of these calls daily. Hubby blesses me each time it rings once and goes away.
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The other day I got 4 scam calls saying they were from the IRS and this was my final notice, that I would be arrested, yada, yada, yada. It was a recording so no live person to talk to unless one calls a certain telephone number. For me it is a meer annoyance but to an elder it could become serious.

I wish I could call back that number, but I am afraid that it could be one of these numbers that capture your telephone number to make overseas calls.

Daily I get a local police report, and at least once a week someone falls for this IRS scam.
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One of the latest scams is calls from people pretending to be either MS, Windows or Dell tech support. The pitch is that they've noticed/observed problems "coming" from my computer, it's "infected" (not a term a tech support person would use), and alleging that they monitor my computer activity through my Internet connection and discovered this so-called "infections."

(I should have said I took my computer to the ER and got a prescription for antibiotics, so the infection is being treated and I don't need their meddling.)

If spyware had been installed, that might be true, but they wouldn't be calling telling me they're spying on me. From what I've read, spyware operates silently.

What they try to do is get control of the computer, telling me that I need to enter certain keystrokes, combinations, etc. so they can remotely access the computer. They became very aggressive when they first called b/c I was a bit unsettled that Dell would have called to report "infection."

And therein lies one of the hoax flaws: they claim they can monitor my computer to see problems but need access to it to solve the problems.

Dell in fact does this when I call for Tech Support, but it's only after I log onto a Dell site and authorize them to use remote access for troubleshooting.

I've received about 5 of these fake tech support calls. These people have my name and know what brand of computer I use. In discussing the issue with Dell, I learned that they had been hacked, and someone had apparently stolen names of clients. The voices thus far are male, with Indian accents.

It changed to a Middle Eastern accent when another one of them called and I told him what action he could perform on himself. Then the calls became obscene ones.


FF, I usually google the fake numbers to find out what I can learn about them. The 800-number site if it's one of the hits has reports from others who've been pestered by the scammers. You can also tell if the call is an overseas one by googling the number; I wouldn't call them back either.

A few years ago there was a proliferation of calls from somewhere in the Caribbean. I don't remember what the exchange was, but a google search revealed the out-of-the-US location.
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Garden I also google the numbers,, but I normally start by telling them I don;t have a computer... that leads to a moment of silence..
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If you really want to have a lively conversation, talk to those Windows or Microsoft scammers. After having a little fun, let them know what you think. Oh, what foul language comes out of their mouth. No part of the female anatomy is off limits to them.
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Jessie, I found that out as well; they became quite vulgar when I refused to give them access to my computer.

I tried to remember what Phoenix had written sometime ago, based on her mother's responses. It was really cute.

I still wish I could find my whistle, or had a loud boat horn or a submarine horn to provide them with some ear piercing sounds.
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I've had one or two of those calls. I responded by saying something such as "No. I don't need any help. Good-bye" and hanging up immediately. The last few days, I've also received scam messages (pop-ups complete with audio) on my computer, indicating that I have computer problems and that I need to call a certain telephone number immediately. There is no way to close the pop-ups. The only way to get rid of them is to shut down the computer.
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Angie, I think a complete shutdown is the best option. Usually there's an "x" in the upper right hand corner of the pop-up, but I wouldn't even click on that. I too just shut down, run a complete scan, then reboot.

These kinds of intrusions are like spies - you never know where they are and when they'll start harassing you. I'd like to think I have some nominal level of privacy, but it's rapidly disappearing in this tech oriented age.

At least I haven't seen any drones flying over head in my area...not yet.
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I had those computer fix-it scams, too. Eventually they stopped calling, I think because my sig other pretended to be from another county with a loud thick Italian accent, in broken English [his family was from Italy so it was easy for him to pull off].
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Yup, I get 5hem too! IRS, GOOGLE Support, the latest was a teenage sounding boy, his first word was Grandma? I replied Yes, but Sorry, my Granddaughters don't know how to use the phone yet, so you must have a wrong number! He hung up, pathetic, as I see where this one might work on an unsuspecting Senior! Thank God my FIL doesn't answer the phone!
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The last several months I receive numerous calls from local area code scammers on my old reliable "brick" cell phone and there's no way to block the number - if I wasn't at work I would answer with a loud horn - as it is I pick up and don't say hello and then shut the flip lid- since my number is listed on the FTC do not call registry I occasionally file a complaint
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