Avoiding Senior Scams

This week, our blog will take a little break from the topic of home care to try to alert seniors to a potentially dangerous phenomenon. It’s unfortunate, but in today’s world, seniors need to be especially careful to avoid the scams of con-artists who prey on the elderly. One particular scam, known as the “grandchild scam” or “grandparent scam” has been making a comeback lately. This article is an attempt to inform seniors of how the scam works, so that they can know what best to do to avoid it.

In the typical grandchild scam, the con-artist will call a senior at home, saying something like “grandma” or “grandpa, I’m so glad to have reached you.” Sometimes the perpetrator will already know the name of a grandchild and attempt to impersonate them. Today, scammers can easily find many peoples’ names and information from websites like Facebook or Myspace, but the scam can work sometimes even without the perpetrator knowing the grandchild’s name. In that case the scammer would ask a leading question to the senior, such as “don’t you know who this is?” If the grandparent responds with a guess of which grandchild this person sounds like the most, the scammer will then have a name to work with. One excellent piece of advice from anti-scam advocates, is to never take a guess, and instead to respond by saying, “why don’t you tell me?” or something to that effect. After hearing that, 99% of scammers will hang up the phone.

If the scammer is successful in getting the senior to believe that he or she is a real grandchild, the scammer will then tell a sob-story about how they were in a car accident, arrested, injured, or in another unfortunate circumstance, and need money right away, in the form of check, money order, or even bank account information. The scammer might even have a co-conspirator come on the line pretending to be someone like a bail-bondsman or doctor, to validate the fictitious story. Another key to the scam is that the fake grandchild tries to convince the senior not to tell anyone about the situation. “Please don’t tell Mom or Dad” is a common statement to hear from the scammer.

This scam has been successful in extracting thousands of dollars from seniors across the country. The seniors who are most vulnerable to it are those who have lots of grandchildren, or have problems with memory. Those who are the most trusting, and generous with money are also heavily victimized.

So the key thing to remember is, regardless of how much you love your grandkids and want the best for them, you should always be suspicious of calls like this. Con artists are often people with zero conscience, and are very good at what they do. The person on the other end of the line might be very convincing, but always keep in mind that they might not be who they say they are.

Source:

http://www.scambusters.org/grandparents.html