How One Man Lost $740,000 to Scammers Targeting His Retirement Savings
Criminals on the internet are increasingly going after Americans over the age of 60 because they are viewed as having the largest piles of savings.
By Tara Siegel Bernard. The New York Times, July 29, 2024
…
These days, sophisticated criminals — on dating sites, on social media, in messaging apps or using malicious software — present an ever-growing risk to people and their savings.
The nature of these schemes makes it nearly impossible to recover the money, leaving victims with little recourse. The stolen funds are often whisked to overseas accounts or laundered through cryptocurrency wallets, which are quickly emptied…
Scammers can impersonate government officials, tech support staff or love interests. They coach victims on how to sidestep fraud prevention measures at financial institutions, and they use manipulative psychological tactics — isolation, a sense of urgency or preying on people’s willingness to trust or connect — to keep the scam going… [end quote]
Friends of mine were scammed out of $20,000 by a man claiming to be tech support who got the wife to sign into their Fidelity account. Fidelity would not reimburse the lost money since they had voluntarily given the scammer control of their computer.
The latest The Journal (WSJ) podcast is a story about who is on the other side off those scams. Most of them are tricked into thinking they got a legit job and then forced to scam.
I keep getting calls from people with a heavy foreign accent, claiming they are calling from “medicare provider”. I ask “who are you calling from?”. They carry on from their script. I ask again “who are you calling from?”. If they don’t give a straight answer, I hang up. Sometimes, when I press them on their identity, they hang up first. So far, I have never gotten a straight answer when I ask them to identify themselves.
I strongly suspect they like to prey on old folks, because many older folks were raised to have some degree of manners, so they don’t demand information, or hang up as readily.
Why do you even answer the phone?
Let them leave a message and since you are obviously at home, listen while they do and if it’s actually someone you know then just pick up.
Simple.
Or use a proper cell phone set to only answer known callers. Others will leave a message.
The scammers never leave a message. Of late, there have been reasons for me to answer the phone, including one call today. Had a very productive conversation, so am glad I picked up the phone.
I used to answer, sometimes the same idiot on the other end, so then the game began to frustrate the jerk, tell him flat out he’s a rotten MF SOB or worse, he’d lose it, swearing, sputtering as I laughed and hung up on him… Evil, rotten scammers don’t deserve the slightest respect… And since Ma Bell won’t open CallerID, no way to tell who was there… Once we went to cells, I turned the ringers down, then off, and finally this year cancelled the landline completely, had that same number for over sixty years, gone… Cell scammers are few, if any, easily blocked, same with texts… Silence is great!
My phone does not ring except for selected numbers. Outsiders have to talk to my lawyer or accountant or send me paper mail via expensive courier (none but the insane trust Mexican postal service).
Or spoofing you about who you are speaking to! My wife and I just recently saw a movie called Thelma about an elderly woman who gets bilked by such a scammer and how she eventually gets her money back. We enjoyed it very much, and I recommend it.
True of the Organization, but as far as the person that is on the other end of the line, they are quite possibly enslaved.
Almost every call I get is a robo call asking you to make a selection before being transferred to a talking voice. Maybe they talked to McKinsey to run the Organization more efficiently so they didn’t need to “employee” so much labour.
There is the giveaway it is a scam. “Medicare provider” would already have your Medicare ID, so if they ask for it, you got them. Works every time. When they ask, you tell them they have the number, so they must tell you the lD shown in their system–because Medicare gave it to them. If they won’t provide it, problem solved. Have fun as long as you want, because wasting their time means fewer scam calls made by them.
I also add some electronic sounds from my computer while we are talking. After they get frustrated, tell them you uploaded a virus to their cell phone and it soon take over their entire network and shut it down. Which sends them into a panic, because they have no clue about how computers and cell phones work. Tell them their boss will LOVE them. BYE !!!
Criminals also work as stock brokers and banks. We have been the victims of both which is one reason to self direct your investments. Then you become the victim of your own stupidity.
On Sunday, as I was returning home going past a supermarket, I was accosted by a man speaking perfect Portuguese claiming to be a recent arrival from Ukraine with wife and children, asking for money to buy a chicken to feed the family. He accosted two others with other pitches but the same punchline, money to buy a chicken.
What are the odds of a Ukrainian recent arrival speaking perfect Portuguese with no hint of a Slavic accent?
For the last two or three years, there has been a bum hanging out at a particular rest area on a freeway. He has a sign “need gas, please help, God bless”. I saw him there consistently, month after month, in the summer. I correlated his presence with a particular car, parked in a particular spot. Last year, the car was a pretty ratty Kia. This year, the car has been a relatively nice Pontiac G6. Panhandling must pay well. It has crossed my mind to challenge him one day “if you didn’t drive to this rest area to panhandle every day, you would not need so much money for gas”. He wasn’t there last Saturday. Maybe someone finally called the Sheriff to run the guy off?
I’ve mentioned before of a client who had his life savings stolen by a scammer during 2023.
From what i can tell, the path to falling for a scam is to be lonely. You don’t have to be an extrovert with hundreds of friends in your contact list. Even us introverts can find ways to develop a few friends who we can talk to.
Every scammer ever preys on fear. They make you afraid so they can take your money. One way to avoid fear is to have at least a couple of friends you can talk to.
