Posted on 11/29/2015 3:52:06 AM PST by Paul R.
A new issue for your favorite candidate?
Recently, a very dear elderly (mid-80's) relative was scammed for over @30k. This was her entire savings, plus she's now about $8k in debt. Her financial situation was precarious anyway. Her income is very limited, so she has no way to "recover". Worse, almost all her income goes away if her ex-husband dies (which may be one reason she ignored all the red flags.)
Additionally, there were / are all sorts of other repercussions including her bank forcing her to close her accounts abruptly, causing even more problems (checks bouncing, etc.) (The bank's "reasons" are really bogus -- she did nothing illegal or that would risk the bank -- but, that's another story.)
Despite loving family support (but not much capability of big $$ aid) the stress & humiliation eventually resulted in physical breakdown with very serious complications. Our relative is now out of the ICU, but the road to (health) recovery will be difficult at best. Just (ever) walking more than a few feet is "iffy".
Having been pulled into this situation to help out as best my family can, I've become aware how widespread this is. EVERY friend I've talked to has a parent who's recently been affected, or at least subject to attempted scammers. If you talk to bank managers, etc., it's even worse. The case I described above is by far the smallest in terms of funds lost that I've come across -- there are many people out there losing far more dollars to scammers.
Since the scammers are almost invariably overseas, this is a loss to both our elderly, their families, and our country. How big is it?
Well, if we assume 500k such scams per year (probably low) and $50k per scam (probably low), that's $25 billion per year of direct loss to the USA. Add in "repercussions" and I'm sure the figure is easily 50 billion a year.
Granted that $50 billion isn't much, by the standard of the money our gov't blows through these days. Still, this is an attack on our citizens, and much more needs to be done to fight it.
Also granted that overseas scammers are hard to go after, but, I say: Declare war on these bastards. At a minimum, HEAVY pressure on the gov'ts of countries the scammers operate from is in order. Execute these turds (scammers) when found via fire ants and honey, and confiscate every penny of their property possible, to compensate victims. If countries won't cooperate, block or at least disrupt their international phone services (through which most scammers operate). In the US, run HEAVY PSA ads. Make services like Western Union at least ask questions about large transfers of funds out of the US, and delay processing as needed if anything looks amiss. Perhaps banks should talk to their elderly customers about large or repeated withdrawals. (This can be done politely and in a helpful manner, with a modicum of creativity!!!)
I know we have Freepers here more qualified than I to discuss measures that can be taken.
Can we get a candidate to take notice? I'll bet it'd be worth a few points in the polls.
I might add, in a related area, truly severe penalties on malicious computer hackers, virus and malware writers, and such, are also needed. (The Saudi way?) But that's probably a topic for another thread...
Eh, I probably should have posted this as a vanity! I’ve been up all night working on the help for our relative (until writing this post) - sorry.
Let’s not be hasty, I have millions of dollars coming from Nigeria any day now.
Why does “Moderator” post as moder_ator? I thought I’d REALLY been up too long!!! But it’s doing it again...
I know my bank has a free service that allows me to set trigger limits on checks, debits and drafts that will send an email to me when that occurs. I also know that some email operating systems allow mirroring of emails.
What I’d have done if my dear mother was still alive is to get online with here and set those triggers to $10, and then I’d mirror anything she got on the email notification address.
On some bank accounts you can have multiple notification addresses also, so a backup email address could have been to me......for example, notices go to two of my email addresses.
It’s worth checking out.
My Mom just got a letter: $1.5 million from Madrid. Via Portugal, if I go by the postmark.
Jamaica is a VERY popular scammer hotspot.
IMO there’s really nothing any candidate can do to stop scammers. The laws are already there.
Possibly the penalties should increase, but then you’d have disproportionate punishments, that is, some scammer would be in jail for 20 years while another for murder 20 years.
The real problem is our cultural drift that started in the 60’s with the hippies and has progressed to all out leftism. I believe there is more crime. Our prisons are full. Kids do not have respect of others and their property like they did before the Jane Fonda’s went to work.
A prime example to represent my point is we have a major criminal running for President. She’s too connected to touch. And as we all know the full weight of the left supports her. And we have the most corrupt, and the first America hating President.
I think the only real protection against scammers is education. People are too trusting in a world where thanks to the lefties there are fewer to trust.
History repeats itself, and sooner or later our culture will get a correction. It could be caused by a great President, CWII, the younger generations just getting fed up, WWIII where another nation comes in and just cleans up Hitler/Stalin/Mao style where scum is just shot on sight. When this happens, I don’t know. But some day it will.
For the time being, I think a Trump or a Cruz would be our best bet at starting this correction.
I’m an American living in Germany....so we have a slightly different type scam. A call comes to Grandma or Grandpa....the kid on the phone says he’s junior...their dear nephew or grandson and he’s in dire trouble with the cops. He just needs Granny to go down to the bank....remove a couple thousand Euro and there will be someone to come by Granny’s house that afternoon to pick up the money....so the kid can pay the cops.
It’s reached a point in my local area where there’s probably a dozen older people a week (population density of 300,000) that get ripped off. The banks now watch for any elderly person who appears and wants to take out more than a thousand Euro....asking them what the money is for. They’ve been able to stop the game to some degree.
The automatic monitoring would be a good idea (if the relative would allow it). But, there’d still need to be some sort of “auto-delay” or a 2nd “responsible party” ok of funds going out. (That probably would require the “monitor” to have Power of Attorney, too?)
Otherwise, if “Mom” takes out $19k to send Next Day to Madrid via cashiers checks to some party (perhaps a scam victim themselves) in FL, once the checks are sent, it’s hard to stop in time.
In one case I know of, the responsible “child” had gone camping 4 days(!) - came back to his Mom with savings drained and credit card maxed out (cash withdrawal).
Heck, I spend a lot of time on my e-mail accounts, but even then, sometimes I don’t see them for 2-3 days at a time.
I agree. But the problem is identifying them & tracking them down. It’s too bad her bank didn’t catch something, though maybe the amounts were small enough to go unnoticed. What kind of scam was it? Maybe you can protect someone else from falling for it.
Since there are already laws protecting the elderly, I would think congress could cover these types of fraud, too
That same scam happens here in the US also.
Never trust anyone who comes to you looking to solve a problem or do your banking for you.
My father got one of those - fortunately he asked the caller to identify themselves and the guy hung up.
My notifications come usually within a matter of hours. Not much delay. Sometimes when I charge something, the notification is at home waiting for me when I get there.
I’m not saying it is fool proof, but a lot of scammers will latch onto a gullible old person and bleed them dry over several weeks/months a bit at a time.
my friend looking for online work at home job got hit with the “we need your bank account info to deposit your pay” scam. clerical job for 50k lol
I’ve read about the FBI one for looking at porn. Says it’s the FBI and locks the screen until you pay a “fine” or face prison lol
How the heck is it disproportionate? The damage is incredible. In the case I cited, the relative likely would have DIED if not for having a medical alert pendant. (She collapsed at home and could not get up.)
Penalties are not disproportionate until they are more than needed to deter virtually anyone sane who would commit the crime. (MOST sane people would not commit murder. Thank God.) This is premeditated to the nth degree, too.
Wait until this destroys someone you love, like chains on them for the rest of their life. You’ll be wanting a terminal fire ant and honey “punishment” for the perp too.
My wife worked with a woman who actually fell for this stuff and she was only around 40. They suckered her till the well ran dry, even though people she worked told it was a scam, she was sure it wasn’t. One born every minute, only reason that Zero could possibly been elected twice.
I keep tabs on my aunt all the time, cautioning her about the latest scams going around. She knows that, if she receives any sort of suspicious contact and is unsure what to do, she should call me. We youngsters don't necessarily have to take complete control of our older relatives’ finances, but we should take a special interest in our older family members, inform them about scams and tell them what to do if they receive any suspicious contact. They should also know they can come to us if they aren't sure what to do.
I understand, but what I’m saying is that there needs to be a delay on the transfer of funds beyond, say, $500, unless the elderly bank customer can explain to, say, the bank branch manager what the withdrawal is for.
Regular checks would be hard to delay - Grandma might just be paying to have the roof repaired, but cash withdrawals for cashiers checks in amounts of many thousands of dollars are another matter...
BTW, I agree with most of your post. The FBI website even notes that people in the generation now 70-90 years old tend to be more trusting and polite than younger people, and therefor are more subject to being scammed.
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