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This makes me sick when I read this. As a retired banker now, when I was working I had clients that got caught in scams and even when I beat them over the head that it was a scam, they didn't listen.
Please reach out to you family as it's not age related to warm them to be aware of scams like this or even the grandparent scam of getting a phone call from the so-called grandchild that needs money.
Unfort, this woman's money is gone and she's really screwed now.
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After a lifetime of working, raising a family and being there for her neighbors, Carole Robinson is on the cusp of losing everything.
All because of a scam.
In late October 2021, the Freehold widow received an email from what she thought was McAfee, the virus protection software company.
It said her annual subscription had been renewed for $499.99, charged to her Wells Fargo bank account.
It’s not something she wanted, she said, so she called the number provided in the email.
This is very sad and it happens a lot. My instinct like most people is to ask what was she thinking (why would you have to send large sums of money to get a $500 refund??). I hope this is not what getting old is like
I get those stupid McAfee emails every other day. Block them, delete them, they keep coming. I DO have McAfee, but I know when my subscription expires and when and how I pay for it.
My friend got the phone call from "Microsoft" saying there was a problem with her computer and she gave them remote access. Fortunately, she does not do online banking or pay bills online, so there was nothing for them to access. She just ended up with a bunch of malware.
This is very sad and it happens a lot. My instinct like most people is to ask what was she thinking (why would you have to send large sums of money to get a $500 refund??). I hope this is not what getting old is like
It shouldn't be. When my mother was 85, she came home from church hopping mad at one of her friends who was wringing her hands in despair at coffee hour because the IRS had called and said she had to pay them $5,000 or she was going to jail. The woman was 80 and caring for her 50-year-old disabled son, and who was going to take care of him if she was in jail?
My mother yelled at her and told her this is why people prey on older people and that information about these scams is everywhere. How could she fall for this? Fortunately, the woman had not yet sent any money, so my mother called her great-nephew who is a cop and asked him to talk to the woman.
I've written about stuff like this before. As a desk office in various NYC precincts, I dealt with people who fell for mindblowing scams. It's very sad. I could tell stories for days. The worst part is that many times it's so blatantly obvious, but the elderly still take the bait.
The worst part is that many times it's so blatantly obvious, but the elderly still take the bait.
And, the fact that the details of these numerous scams have been publicized so many times must mean that these people never read a newspaper, and/or never watch/listen to TV/radio news.
However, folks other than the very elderly have fallen for these scams. The late 50s husband of a woman whom I know fell for the "Your grandson is in a Mexican jail and needs bail" scam. He was phoned by someone claiming to be from the US Embassy in Mexico, and was told that he needed to go to Walmart and buy Greendot gift cards, call the "embassy" back, and read the serial numbers from those cards to person at "the embassy" so that they could cash them. Then, the Embassy folks would go to the jail and bail-out sonny-boy. Yeah... right...
So, rather than simply phoning his son (father of the grandson) in order to find out if the kid was even out of the country, Grampy dutifully trekked to Walmart and bought (I think) $4k worth of those gift cards, and followed the scammer's directions precisely. By the time he figured out that he had been scammed, the scammers had already collected the cash, and his money was unrecoverable.
That’s the number one scam right there. I’ve got some doozies though. Like a gas station attendant tricked into believing the perp could create 20’s out of a stack of 1’s. Man that one was something else. Or the very common Asian scam involving putting all of one’s valuables into a pillow case which is of course switched out. Lottery scams are big too.
We all laugh at those letters from Nigerian royalty, right? They are going to send you a trunkful of millions for safekeeping, and all you have to do is send them a shipping fee so that it can't be traced by whomever is trying to dethrone the Nigerian prince. You will be rewarded handsomely for your help. Of course, sometimes it is all-electronic, but often you send the shipping fee electronically or they access your bank account.
I got one once that was signed by Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State. I tacked it up in my office.
Then I got talking to the guy who monitors the aircargo email address for JFK. He has several times now had people contact him because they are waiting to be notified that a shipment has come through JFK for them that they have to pick up...and after some questions, it turns out that it's a trunk of cash or gold or whatever from a foreign government. They paid the shipping fee but now it's been weeks and they haven't gotten the shipment.
The worst part is when the victim can’t be convinced they’re being scammed. There was a woman who banked where I worked that was convinced she had an online boyfriend overseas who just needed money for a business venture and was going to give her the money right back. I told her multiple times in plain English that I am 100% certain that she is being scammed, but she would not budge. Sent the guy tens of thousands of dollars.
We all laugh at those letters from Nigerian royalty, right? They are going to send you a trunkful of millions for safekeeping, and all you have to do is send them a shipping fee so that it can't be traced by whomever is trying to dethrone the Nigerian prince. You will be rewarded handsomely for your help. Of course, sometimes it is all-electronic, but often you send the shipping fee electronically or they access your bank account.
I got one once that was signed by Hilary Clinton, Secretary of State. I tacked it up in my office.
Then I got talking to the guy who monitors the aircargo email address for JFK. He has several times now had people contact him because they are waiting to be notified that a shipment has come through JFK for them that they have to pick up...and after some questions, it turns out that it's a trunk of cash or gold or whatever from a foreign government. They paid the shipping fee but now it's been weeks and they haven't gotten the shipment.
I used to play along with those guys and pretend I was a victim. I would string them along for days and then finally tell them to get a job and stop trying to scam people. One of them responded back that he makes $20,000 a month doing this. I believe it
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