Liam Neeson being phone scammed

Telephone Scams: The Lowest of the Lows

My grandmother is the sweetest woman on the planet, as many would also say of their own loving grandmother, but unfortunately her age is becoming more of a problem than it ever has. She is still in great shape, but just not as “sharp” as she used to be. Inevitably, she has become older. It is exactly this inevitable decline in capability that the dirtiest of scamming criminals take advantage of.

She was told that it was “her favorite grandson”, in which she answered, “Robert?”…she swears it sounded like me, yeah right we all know I’m her favorite. The scammer exclaimed “Yes!” and now thought he had her. He needed the 3 grand in order to bail out of jail due to a taxi cab “I” was in being pulled over. The trunk of the cab was full of drugs and I was in a hot mess. My grandmother at first was somewhat sold due to the intensity and gravity of the situation explained, but after speaking with my grandfather it got shutdown.

These scumbags will call up almost any elderly folk in the hopes of making quick cash and loads of it. Hell, they were asking for $3,ooo USD from my own grandmother. Luckily, both my father and grandfather were able to shut it down pretty quickly, but this made me wonder how many called people don’t have help understanding that the call is a scam.

I recently read a figure on telephone scams and their annual income; $40 billion USD annually is lost to phone scams. Now, in relative terms of government spending and resource profits, this isn’t the most insane amount of money in the world, but it’s who and how they are targeting sweet and caring older victims. Assholes.

People yelling at the assholes who pull scams

This Top 10 article lays out the most common types of phone scams happening today, and is a basic guide worth reading or showing to your elderly relatives as these crooks are getting creative with the angles they’re taking.

My personal favorite is the small-print scam people pull when you rent a cell phone. Loading the small-print of a contract with ridiculous fees and rates. Talk about low of the lows…we are watching you Apple some of us out here read those long-ass agreements.

The “art” of phone scams

A fairly new scam called the “one-ring phone scam” has become increasingly popular of late and the bills are adding up. It involves oversees foreigners setting up computers that call thousands of random numbers, let the phone ring once, and then hang up. When people call the number back, they are billed a $20 international call fee and then connected to a paid premium service, such as an adult chat line that charge $9 per minute or more. Quick and easy money. This scam also shows that these people will target the elderly most often, but anyone is at risk.

How can we stop these horrible scams from occurring? I’m finding that the best preparedness you can have is being aware and vigilant. Never let your guard down on these guys. People are constantly trying to one up or “get” someone through a hustle as it’s unfortunately the lows that some must dip too. But, when one reaches an older age they do need to be informed about their higher risk as a target due to their age. My family found out about this phenomenon through experience and many others will have the same experience. Prevent the experience all together by learning more and talking about these thieving assholes to your older relatives.

Cheers,

Robert Fallon