My elderly parents are easy pickings for these scamsters. When they were younger, they wouldn't give so much as a nickel to anybody trying to sell them something unsolicited over the phone and would slam the door on even Girl Scouts selling cookies. Now the both of them will willingly speak to telemarketers and if somebody calls pretending to be the bank trying to fix a problem, they will willingly give their social security numbers and credit card information. They don't even give it a second thought. Drives my siblings and I crazy.
The latest scam going around is the "Publisher's Clearinghouse" scam in which elderly folks are told they just won a brand new car and all they have to do to have it delivered is run down to the WalMart and buy some gift cards in order to purportedly pay down a 1% tax on the car so that it could be delivered to them. My mother called all excited about the brand new Mercedes Benz she was just told she won and asked for a ride to Wal-Mart so she could get the necessary gift cards to claim her prize.
It took my wife about 15 minutes to talk her down from Cloud 9 and convince her that she was just scammed. Fortunately, she never bought those gift cards but that's exactly what she was hell bent on doing at first.
I hope that I do not become that way when I get older.
My mother-in-law (MIL) is a widow, and has been brainwashed to believe that she is going to die of covid if she engages in social interactions outside her house. She is bored, and as a result, she will talk to any sweet-talking stranger who calls her on the phone, particularly if the person claims they need her personal information to protect her from a security breach.
After the Chase incident, we had a family intervention with her about talking to strangers on the phone. We cleaned computer spyware, malware, and other malicious apps from her computer and opened a new bank account with limited access for her SSI and pension deposits, and a third bank account where we move small amounts of cash for her to use as needed.
Yet, two weeks later, she was on the phone, again, with a total stranger, about to give out personal information to resolve a “security issue” with her cell phone account. Fortunately, we just so happened to visit while she was on the phone and the stranger quickly ended the conversation.
These scammers are good. One of them told her to relax and get a glass of wine because it would take some time to walk her through the security fix. They asked her about her grandchildren, leisure travel, mortgage and other debt (she has none), and other expenditures — probably to estimate her financial means. They also asked about her investments, and she told the stranger that she is “worth millions,” but that only her son-in-law (me) has access to the accounts and he gives her what she needs. She even offered him my email address and telephone number so that I could answer his questions. And even though she has anti-virus/malware/spyware programs on her computer, they are pretty much useless when she ignores the pop-up warnings and opens attachments to emails and clicks on email links from senders she does not know.