Posted on 01/13/2020 6:32:55 AM PST by Red Badger
Imagine you’re retired and your primary source of income is your monthly Social Security check.
Your telephone rings and an automated message says your Social Security number has been “suspended” because of some suspicious activity. You may even be threatened with arrest if you don’t call the telephone number provided in the automated message.
If someone calls saying that your Social Security number and the benefits connected to it may be in jeopardy, it’s understandable that you might panic. You’re told that to “reactivate” your Social Security number, you have to pay a fee or buy gift cards. You have reservations, but fear of being cut off from the money you so desperately need overtakes any reservations you may have.
So you call the number.
What comes next can be devastating.
“My mother is 76 and has early Alzheimer’s,” one reader wrote. “She received a call saying that her Social Security information was compromised and that the only way to rectify the situation was to buy $3,200 in gift cards to Target and GameStop and give the codes to an ‘employee.’ She was told the money would be deposited back into her bank account. Obviously, the majority of people would understand that this is a scam, but she is easily confused and gave away all of the money in her checking account. And once it was gone, there was no way to help her or recover the money.”
This Texas woman’s daughter, who wrote to me, said one store employee warned her mother that she was probably being scammed.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Anyone with Alzheimers or dementia should either not have a cell phone or should not have the information they need to modify their accounts.
I have a strategy with my phone. Operation Clunk. If it’s a sale call or whatever I don’t recognize. Clunk!
Hard to believe that DEMOCRATS are supporting these scammers, but they are.
How do I know that? They’re spending all their time on impeachment, rather than writing laws to end this crap.
(this is how the Democrats normally go after Republicans, it’s time we start doing the same)
Evil? No way. There are certain cultures where it’s ok to steal. Lying and cheating are ok too. What does the Koran say about infidels. Gypsies at tourist sites in Europe. Don’t forget the Nigerian prince. It is what it is.
This article is from WaPo, how credible can it be?
Maybe that is good advice in most cases.
But that is not the real issue. We as a society tolerate way too much crime. If the penalty for this was high enough - crime rates would drop to 1/10th or even 1/100th of what they are now.
Even criminals operating off shore can, and should, be dealt with.
If you fall for this scam, you should be in a skilled nursing facility.
So you’re for MORE government intervention in your life?
People that prey on the elderly, if found, should be publicly flogged.
When my mother started with dementia we took all her active credit cards and gave her some expired ones. THANKFULLY, she forgot her SS#.
I am thinking now we should have given her a fake SS# with 8 digits.
To have a scammer waste there time for nothing talking to a dementia sufferer with bad information makes me smile.
Same here, the phone call is not from my contact list, CLUNK!
If you answer the phone and it’s a guy with an Indian accent who says his name is ‘Steve’, hang up.
Where did I mention the government in my post.
When I use the word “should”, it’s in the same vein as “men should not have sex with women they are not married to. Or, people should not get into debt.
The people that are REALLY vulnerable here is the aged that are not competent, and have no family to protect them.
Life can be very hard.
I agree. People think I’m crazy, but I’m against long prison terms. Five years might be OK, for some crimes. If 5 years seems an insufficient penalty, then I would execute the convicted criminal. I would execute a lot of criminals.
LeonardFMason wrote: “People that prey on the elderly, if found, should be publicly flogged.”
A colonoscopy with a cattle prod would also be appropriate.
"My other phone is ringing.....it's my spouse who works in the telephone fraud unit of the FBI."
Cutting off certain of their parts is okay with me....................
SS was pretty evil since its founding. When dim-0s came up with it, you had to be 65 to draw. Life expectancy in the US back then was 59 years. They meant to rob working people all their working lives only to have them die before reaching an age when they could draw.
Occasionally a f I have time when a scammer calls I say “thanks for calling back I’m glad we can get xxxxxxx going now” and just randomly put them on hold and change topics repeatedly asking absurd questions
Got one at Christmas time on I put on hold for 40 minutes and when I came back he was still waiting
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