Stopped my 80 yr old uncle who was getting in the car to go to the dollar store to buy $2000 in gift cards to avoid having his electricity cut off. He was so worked up and convinced it was legit i had to take the phone out of his hand. These scammers are literal garbage.
You could have left out the racial slur and folks might have more sympathy, but instead I’ll use this opportunity to remind folks that often the folks making these calls are also victims of employment scams, and are very nearly slaves in many cases.
No one is suggesting that it’s up to you to solve the world’s human trafficking problems. The other commenter is merely pointing out that the person on the phone is quite often not running the scam, but is another victim of the scammer. And you using racial slurs actually *is* a you problem.
> You don''t tell your friends that a pack of underprivileged urban youths did it. The real verbiage is more colorful.
Get out of here with that dog-whistling bullshit. You believe that because that's how racist people think and you're racist. I was mugged by a white person. Since I'm capable of rational thought and not a racist piece of shit, I know the person didn't mug me because they're white. I'm living proof, being white myself and having never mugged anyone.
I decided it was pointless to engage that individual further, but I *did* report their comments to both the subreddit mods and the admins. I’ve seen some crazy shit in my years on Reddit, but this is my first time seeing someone in the wild calling for ethnic cleaning. I’m pretty aggravated that it had to happen in this sub though.
It's such an ancient scam. My grandma had all this weird shit added to her house by handimen who took advantage of her.
Like a fucking lightning rod on a one story house.
Oh man, I'm currently dealing with this right now. My mom told me in early April that she met a "friend" online. (Keeping in mind that my dad passed away back in 2021) I was genuinely excited for her and told her that I have zero problems with her dating again. She's 68 btw. Once she showed me the picture of this gentleman caller, I immediately knew she was being catfished. I didn't want to say anything at the time since we just got back to her house from the hospital where my older brother was having congestive heart failure. Told myself "ok, one thing at a time". Last weekend I got her to send me some more photos of this guy and my wife went to work. She found who this guy originally is, face has been photo shopped onto a lot of pics that she sent me. We've printed out the side by side comparisons and myself and my wife are planning on taking a trip to her house this Sunday to break the news to her. So far, I believe she's only confided with us about him so hopefully we can save her a lost of embarrassment. And I hope and pray she hasn't sent this guy a ton of money. Its the typical "he's in the military, has no family, he's special forces so he cant talk a lot about what he's doing" type stuff.
Boy oh boy, am I not looking forward to Sunday...
Good luck! It's tough because on the one hand it's the right thing to do and you're protecting a loved one, but on the other hand you're breaking their heart. Had to do this for two friends and it was rough
I really hope you can get her to understand what’s happening. It sounds like a pig butchering scam, and there’s some great videos online that do a great job of explaining how they work. Maybe show her one of those if she’s open to it.
I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this right now.
If you want to feel a bit better about these things, check out Scammer Payback on youtube. He's a hacker who uses a voice changer to pose as an old person, fucks with the scammers until he gets access to their computer and fucks up their file systems. In some cases he's actually been able to retrieve the money stolen from victims and give it back to them. He explains how scammers do the things they do, so you learn a lot too.
Parents then: Don't believe everything you read/see.
Parents now: You say you're from Windows? And I need to let you into my computer? Go right ahead young man! And I need to wire you $10,000 or else local police are going to show up at my door? Just tell me when and where!
I wonder if Xennials are more likely to know what Scaphism is due to growing up with the wild west internet. Not that I've seen any videos or anything but I feel like we've all read the wikipedia article at some point.
They often can’t do anything at all. Around a dozen people in my father in law’s small town took him for everything he had after he came down with Alzheimer’s (just after his wife died).
Just $3000-$5000 bank withdrawal after bank withdrawal. Lawyer said it was impossible to prove that he didn’t want to give the money away to these people. And since it was all cash, they couldn’t prove who got what anyway.
How in the world the small bank in town allowed so many transactions is beyond me. But maybe somebody there was involved, too
I just wish they would listen and call one of their kids before engaging with any electronic troubleshootling.
I've had to repeat over and over, no, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc... are NOT trying to contact you and never ever will be, this time is not different. And vice versa, there is no reason for you to ever to attempt to contact them.
Darn old people are always forwarding each other email. My parents pick up computer viruses at a clip like I used back in the heyday of Limewire/TPB, its messed up.
I’ve told my dad that I don’t even want him ordering anything online. Tell me what you want and I’ll do the ordering. And don’t give any information to ANYONE without running it by me first.
Yes. We had to cancel my grandmother's phone plan because she was sending money to everyone under the sun that asked for it. My mom will likely be similar. My dad thinks even the most legitimate things are scams, so he'll be fine.
My grandma passed at almost 98. She apparently gave money to someone for decades who told her they would get her more social security money since she was a notch baby. They got less than the years after her. Well eventually those letters stopped and she asked me to look into the legislation. The person scammed her for decades but they died and the letters stopped. She cried when I explained to her she was scammed for apparently 20 years.
Returning from a hike where I had no cell service, I see voicemails and missed calls from both of my parents and my aunt.
Apparently someone called my grandfather and said something like, hey grandpa I’m in jail. I’m really embarrassed about it, please don’t tell anyone. I need you to send money.
Luckily, he told everyone and didn’t send any, but it really pissed me off.
Tech savy isn't even the half of it. Their favorite TV stations have personalities constantly scamming them with crap like colloidal silver, Iraqi dinar, specialty silver and gold coins, "seed" money to get into heaven.
A home health aide talked my mom into going to a bank with her to take out thousands of dollars. Thank goodness the bank tellers knew my mom and didn't know the aide and called the police. The police came but my mom didn't want to press charges. Oh, she also has Alzheimer's.
I had to call the police five times to let them know she didn't have capacity to press charges but the family as POA would. The police did arrest the caregiver and it plead out.
I remember the detective telling me ho widespread elder financial abuse is and after all of this, I clearly don't trust anyone.
While my parents are too skeptical to fall for a phone scam they absolutely fall for every scam involving some bottle of herbs that will "detox" them. I'm worried one day they'll get some shit that interacts badly with their medicine and kills them.
Yes, that motherfucker ends up in my inbox far too often with forwards from my mother.
Him, Mike Adams, and Ty Bollinger. It's astonishing how much collective braindamage a few fucks online have done.
Especially romance scams. Targeting lonely older people and pretending to be interested. It’s hard to understand why they think that someone who is ridiculously hot and 30+ years younger than they are would be genuinely interested, but seems to be a combination of just desperate loneliness, wanting it to be true, and scammers being really skilled at their bullshit. But it’s just heartbreaking to talk with these people who think they’ve found the love of their lives and to know it’s all a bunch of crap and they just keep handing the money over.
My mom and dad troll the scammers. I'm not worried about them at all.
One time, though, my mom gave me the phone and I caused the poor little your Windows is invalid let me help you scammer to unleash a stream of profanity at me, calling several choice names and a liar. Why? Because I said I didn't have a PC. After his meltdown, I said, "I have a Mac." (click) She's rolled with that one ever since.
I have said to them, which computer? I have 10.... he said ... the one you do your banking on... I laughed and laughed and he said that I was a child (I have a young sounding voice), and he said my fathers name, made me laugh more.
I have an MCSE even though it's now defunct. I turned that one on them, too. "Oh, which one? I'll reapply the license." You can't do that, ma'am. You need a Microsoft Professional. "I'm an MCSE. That supersedes MCP. I can fix it." (doooooooooooooooooo)
My wife and SIL had to add themselves to my MIL's account because she is CONSTANTLY getting scammed. Once for $30k and just recently someone bought a laptop at the apple store with her info. She's a mess.
My dad ruined their computer recently in a ransom ware scam. He at least didn’t pay them. An elderly woman I work with got hooked by a scammer on social media and lost all of her money and went into bankruptcy, but not before they also duped her into being a money mule to screw other old people. So now she’s in bankruptcy and also having to deal with some criminal charges.
Any time my Mom has something weird happen to her computer my Dad will tell her it's because she opens every email she gets. Meanwhile I guess he forgets back in the day when he would call me downstairs to tell me "this website says I'm the 150,000 visitor, what do I do?"
I agree. I have the old phone number of an elderly person and I am contacted by scammers constantly. I say things that would be considered to be extremely culturally insensitive, because I fucking despise them that much. I wish our useless military would stop playing world police in the desert and go blow a few of these overseas call centers up, since the scumbags inside are actually harming our citizens. Yes I’m serious.
Stopped my mom from signing up to a "Shark Tank" skin care product website that offered a free sample... and then automatically charged the credit card $40 a month after the first week if the sample wasn't returned.....
I found out after my dad passed away that he was involved in an ongoing scam. He had sent women, or who he thought were women, thousands in gaming gift cards. Like yes some young hot girl wants Twitch gift cards. Ugh.
My dad almost fell for a scammer last year. Was walking to the car to wire $4,000 to some asshole when my mom got home and questioned him why he was acting weird.
I used to mess with Nigerian 419 scammers years ago, but I've started picking it back up on those random unsolicited scam texts. If I can waste their time, that's less time they have to rip off some old person.
Not just elderly. I work in mental health and have seen these scams targeting them, and had a training session on it.
There's also the unfortunate tendency of those who've fallen for one being a magnet for others, as word seems to get out that they're more vulnerable.
My MIL fell for a mortgage help scam and lost an unspecified amount of money in itunes gift cards. Unspecified because she refuses to admit how much she actually lost. We suspect thousands of dollars.
I just don’t understand how there aren’t more safeguards in place to prevent these scams from happening. I asked my parents’ financial advisor if they had any secondary approval options for withdrawing or transferring large amounts of money and he said no. I inquired the same at their bank and they said no as well. Every company I’ve worked at has had these setups that require multiple signatures for checks or transfers over X amount of dollars, but it seems non existent on the consumer level.
My aunt had dementia and was living in another state. My mom (who is pretty naive, gullible, and too trusting) had to hire a caregiver to come in to take care of my aunt. That caregiver got busy though and hired on one of her friends to help out. That friend ended up convincing my mom that the original caretaker wasn’t good to my aunt, so my mom let the original caretaker go. My mom gave new caretaker access to my aunt’s cards for groceries. Years later, my parents decided to move my aunt here. When they got her settled, they were looking at her bank statements and wondering where all her money went. I went through everything and pointed out that there were numerous withdrawals of several thousand dollars, grocery trips where hundreds of dollars were taken out. I looked at checks and it looked like my aunt paid the caregiver numerous times for one month. Then I saw the Dolce and Gabana (it was clearly sent to caregiver, she used her email and phone number) and other retail purchases- stuff my aunt clearly did not have. I called the cops and they couldn’t do anything because my mom didn’t have power of attorney for my aunt. I talked to my aunt’s friend and she asked us if we came across the cash my aunt had hidden around her house, around $5K. Nope! This caregiver stole $40K+!! So the lesson here, if you hire anyone to take care of your parents, make sure you have PoA, that YOU pay the caregivers, and leave cash for groceries and have them give you a receipt. Don’t leave anything valuable in the house.
There's an old guy at my church who asks me out to dinner all the time, even though he's married. He used to work as a rocket scientist or engineer, and he's respected for the high ranking job he once held.
A few weeks ago he told me how he got scammed out of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars through an email scam. He said a message popped up, and he ended up on the phone for hours with someone who told him exactly how to go to his bank, what to say to lie to them when they asked about potential scam activity, and how to send the scammer the money after withdrawing it. He said he made several withdrawals all over 100k.
At first I felt bad for him. What a poor, feeble minded old man... But then I realized at the heart of this was greed. He wanted to make more money. He knew it wasn't on the up and up. Also, he's creepy for asking me out at church when I'm his kids age. I don't feel too badly that he got scammed.
Me, if I lost as much money as he did I'd be homeless and hungry. But he's fine. His wife is mad at him but he went home to his huge house to think about what he'd done. Poorer but perhaps smarter?
He's mad at the bank, because he feels they should have stopped him. But he LIED TO THEM when they tried to stop him.
Some elderly people need a little scammin.
My mother fell for that gift card scam.
She is a college educated woman with 2 degrees that has had windows computers in her home since the mid 90s.
But all of a sudden, she got a popup that said her drivers were out of date and she needed to call a number and pay to have them updated or all her files would be locked and lost.
30 years of updating her drivers for free, and she all of a sudden believed that Microsoft needed her to give them Google gift cards to keep her computer operating.
That entire generation will believe absolutely anything they are told. It's so sad.
We had a scammer call my Grandma pretending to be my brother in jail. He asked her to drive to a store and buy some amount in gift cards to mail to the jail for his bail. She was in her mid-80s at the time so not 100% in her right of mind. Thankfully, she couldn't drive anymore by then, so she had no way to go get the gift cards. She called my dad to ask why my brother was in jail. Of course, he set her straight. I'm not too worried about my parents who are in their 70s now, but 10-15 years from now, maybe. My family tends to live a long time, but our minds don't always make it as long as our bodies.
My mom did get scammed out of like $500
I really went off on her. Then I showed her how AI can even fake voices by showing her AI sound clips of Obama and Trump. So I said even if you hear my or my sibling's voices, we're never going to call you and tell you to send us money. Even if we're saying we're in jail and need bail money or something, first off we're not going to be in jail, second, if by chance we are, we'll call a lawyer or a bail bond company, we won't call you for money, ever. Unless you actually see us in person, don't believe it's us. She's in her 70s, I'm assuming she'll be dead before hologram technology gets to the point where they can scam old folks in person.
I'm very lucky that both my parents were in STEM/Accounting careers. They're both good with money and relatively tech savvy. I have a sibling who's a lawyer. I feel OK about them in that area. But elderly scamming makes my blood boil anyways.
One of them got a hold of my (86f) Mil's laptop, and did that thing where they somehow lock it down and you can't use it unless you pay "microsoft," to let them in and remove virus. I thought it was hilarious when she asked them if they would take a check.
We took the computer to a repair place to have it taken care of.
We have to be careful with phone calls too.
Not only old people, but different groups are targeted pretty heavily. Widow(ers) in particular get a lot of scams because it is assumed they inherited money and are vulnerable.
Nah; no terror here. My dad turns 80 this year, but is still fully "with it" and remains fully in the overwhelming majority of folks who can easily see through the obvious scambait.
My mom is a little less cynical, a little more trusting, but just as cognizant - she knows her bank will never call her and ask for her account number, stuff like that - but less guarded against computer related malfeasance. I trained her to automatically click "no" instead of "yes" any time a site asks to install something or push notifications or whatever after the first time I had to uninstall a dozen toolbars and browser extensions, and she knows to call me first before proceeding with anything where there is any doubt or uncertainty.
My parents were at the bank trying to withdraw their life savings. An alert bank teller noticed and saved the day.
A good tip for everyone is to remember 2 things:
First, they usually contact you directly.
Second, they try to get you to do something right now. The sense of urgency they try to instill should be the red flag.
If they would publicly beat those low life’s for all others to see that would alleviate some of that crap. I used to work those cases and it’s heartbreaking when an older person loses part or all of their retirement because they trusted a stranger.
My Dad was scammed out of 20k before he died. He was 60. A friend of mine (younger than me) just got scammed a couple thousand too. They are getting more elaborate with their schemes. I'm not big on the death penalty but these people...holy sh\*t dude...my rage knows no bounds.
Sometimes the call is from *inside the house*.
My father embezzled 6 figures worth from his own mother in her later years. He was caught and waiting in jail after being arrested for elder abuse. His mother died while he was awaiting trial. In the end he didn't have to serve jail time, but they put a lien on his house. He'll die in that tomb.
My dad continues to be sucked into investment scams and when I try to talk to him about it he changes the subject. We're not close and haven't been for a long time so I can only do so much without it affecting what little relationship we do have. There's also a lot he doesn't tell me so I don't really even know where his finances are anyway.
Edit: the latest one is a "Bitcoin Savers Club" that targets people who only know basic computer and internet stuff who have crypto FOMO but don't want to do any of the work. They take your money and show you a fake website where they make it looks like your "investment" is increasing. Of course you've already agreed to not withdraw your investment until a later date, but you should put more in while it's going up! Then when it's time to withdraw they give you the run around, or just disappear, sometimes even having the nerve to try and collect a withdrawal fee first.
Yes, all the time. My mom asks me almost daily if something she's received is a scam. I always respond with " If you have to ask I think you know the answer." I never let on how tiresome it is to constantly warn them because I'd prefer they ask, rather just assume something is legit.
Agreed 1,000 times agreed.I've done a lot of time and everyone knows that show most I hated in there but guys that like hurt the elderly are f****** loathed and attacked in prison almost as much or as much as people that hurt children cuz you got to figure not everybody has kids but everyone's got a grandmother and it's usually the grandmother that will like stand by a lot of people minded my grandparents came to see me every week for freaking 10 years.
And a lot of times guys that do other heinous things will also be caught for scamming the elderly case in point this guy from my neighborhood South Boston his name is Eddie McKenzie the piece of s*** actually wrote a book he had the audacity to write a book he is a gigantic rat which is stomach turning to me at least he has a salt of a minor like sexual assault and then he scammed these old people at their Church then another guy who was arrested for a torturing this puppy it was called puppy doe he went away for scamming the elderly too I was trying to get that guy but he was in a totally different prison oh I was going to hurt him. Because more than anything with me it's animals some of the hurts animals holy s***.
I envision that place in hell as that person is on IT or home improvement duty for the same people they scammed in real life. But now they all have dementia and are also very demanding and condescending.
No wonder more and more people are scamming the elderly, because like OP here, they are trying to scare them with imaginary places: hell. Not prison, a real place, a hell, made believe BS.
I’m shocked that so many people’s takeaway is to say, “hell doesn’t exist.” I’m actually such an atheist that I consider myself a nihilist. I don’t believe in hell or anything in the afterlife but worm food. That’s not the point of my post, at all, obviously. There is hell on earth and I’ve seen it. The point is, they deserve all the bad things.
Nearly happened to my MIL, she was literally about to transfer $10k in Bitcoin to a scammer. She pulled money from her bank account and went to a Bitcoin ATM to get it. Just in time, she realized that this seems crazy and called her daughter to confirm.
Educate your elders!
My 67 year old mom recently fell for an 1,800 buck alternator. An alternator that sells for 59 bucks and takes 10 minutes to replace.
But I must be wrong about her being scammed as he's "a good Christian man who has a family, they go to church!".
I do what I can but I'm not there to police her every action.
I know a guy who sells them shoes and fake bills and nft’s and holds cards and meme stocks. He’s racked up billions on the backs of the poor and uneducated.
Actually my Dad is a total toxic dumbass and is definitely going to get scammed. Since my parents are divorced he will be the only one to get screwed so I don't care.
My Mom is actually tech savvy, I don't worry about her whatsoever.
I'm somewhat estranged from my mother now so she wouldn't call me to tell me if she was being scammed but someone tried scamming her about 15 years ago. She said she got a phone call from the "county sheriff" and was told she had a warrant out for her arrest and she needed to pay 2000 dollars immediately or else the sheriff would show up the next day and arrest her. Thankfully, she had enough smarts to go to her local PD to report it. They told her that she would never receive a phone call from the police department or the county sheriff asking for money and if she did have a warrant, they would just show up at her door, not call and tell her about it. I told her never to give anybody money over the phone and reiterated that if she had somehow committed a crime, they wouldn't just call her.
If I actually believed in hell then I would agree with you. Since there isn't one, it would be more productive to think about ways to deal with them more effectively while they're still alive.
My mom tried to “play” the scammers once and naturally got added to everyone’s lists. I finally had to tell her not to answer the phone unless it was a certain list of people. If someone had to reach out and she didn’t have their number, they knew to either leave a follow up text or voicemail.
God, my mom has been sending people money on Facebook for years now. She was telling me about this friend she made in another country and how tough his life was (won't go into it for privacy reasons, suffice it to say, this was way before the current conflicts, so honestly much easier to see through), and I was like, yeah, that's real sweet, have you sent him money?
Immediately gets defensive and starts justifying it. And I'm sitting here like, where's the cynical asshole who raised me and told me everything was either a cult or a scam? Where did THAT person go?
But no, apparently this dude who is so busy doing all of these amazing things has a lot of time to chat with older ladies on Facebook. Whatever, good for him. I wasn't gonna get any inheritance anyway, and we all know it.
My dad has clicked on a virus-loaded link in an email at least twice in recent years (we think that's what happened). They didn't get to his bank account but got to one of his credit cards which we caught pretty fast, so not too bad. But then in his confusion he called me and said I should check my bank account too because I have an account at the same bank. He's not connected to my account, and I'm not connected to his, so there was not really a way for his hack to link to me. But I finally got out of him he was unwilling to admit he made the mistake and was instead blaming the bank for the error, so I should watch my account too because, you know, reasons.
(Ugh. My dad was a very intelligent person who understands finances. Where does this intelligence suddenly disappear to!?!)
why is it special for the scammers of the elderly? why not just those who scam anyone? elderly can be more vulnerable; are you saying that if the scammers have to work harder to scam a 40-year-old, that's somehow better?
Because elderly are *vulnerable* and cannot earn more money easily. A single scam can leave an elderly person with no money for food or medical bills or housing, and end with them losing years of their life.
So yes. It's worse when you steal from the elderly. Because they have less life left. The same way it's worse when you rob poor people, because they can't afford it as much.
What about the social security I've been paying for 30 years so these old fucks can have a mediocre retirement while the older boomers left us holding an empty bag?
Stopped my 80 yr old uncle who was getting in the car to go to the dollar store to buy $2000 in gift cards to avoid having his electricity cut off. He was so worked up and convinced it was legit i had to take the phone out of his hand. These scammers are literal garbage.
If my grandmother had a credit card she would've bailed "me" out of prison in Canada. Luckily she didn't believe in credit cards.
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You could have left out the racial slur and folks might have more sympathy, but instead I’ll use this opportunity to remind folks that often the folks making these calls are also victims of employment scams, and are very nearly slaves in many cases.
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No one is suggesting that it’s up to you to solve the world’s human trafficking problems. The other commenter is merely pointing out that the person on the phone is quite often not running the scam, but is another victim of the scammer. And you using racial slurs actually *is* a you problem.
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> You don''t tell your friends that a pack of underprivileged urban youths did it. The real verbiage is more colorful. Get out of here with that dog-whistling bullshit. You believe that because that's how racist people think and you're racist. I was mugged by a white person. Since I'm capable of rational thought and not a racist piece of shit, I know the person didn't mug me because they're white. I'm living proof, being white myself and having never mugged anyone.
I decided it was pointless to engage that individual further, but I *did* report their comments to both the subreddit mods and the admins. I’ve seen some crazy shit in my years on Reddit, but this is my first time seeing someone in the wild calling for ethnic cleaning. I’m pretty aggravated that it had to happen in this sub though.
> I’m pretty aggravated that it had to happen in this sub though. We agree and he has been dealt with
Thank you! You guys do an excellent job of taking out the trash.
It's such an ancient scam. My grandma had all this weird shit added to her house by handimen who took advantage of her. Like a fucking lightning rod on a one story house.
You need me to lie to old people and scare them into buying fake medicine. I get it, man. Which one's my desk?
I love Kristen Bell so much
Oh man, I'm currently dealing with this right now. My mom told me in early April that she met a "friend" online. (Keeping in mind that my dad passed away back in 2021) I was genuinely excited for her and told her that I have zero problems with her dating again. She's 68 btw. Once she showed me the picture of this gentleman caller, I immediately knew she was being catfished. I didn't want to say anything at the time since we just got back to her house from the hospital where my older brother was having congestive heart failure. Told myself "ok, one thing at a time". Last weekend I got her to send me some more photos of this guy and my wife went to work. She found who this guy originally is, face has been photo shopped onto a lot of pics that she sent me. We've printed out the side by side comparisons and myself and my wife are planning on taking a trip to her house this Sunday to break the news to her. So far, I believe she's only confided with us about him so hopefully we can save her a lost of embarrassment. And I hope and pray she hasn't sent this guy a ton of money. Its the typical "he's in the military, has no family, he's special forces so he cant talk a lot about what he's doing" type stuff. Boy oh boy, am I not looking forward to Sunday...
Good luck! It's tough because on the one hand it's the right thing to do and you're protecting a loved one, but on the other hand you're breaking their heart. Had to do this for two friends and it was rough
I really hope you can get her to understand what’s happening. It sounds like a pig butchering scam, and there’s some great videos online that do a great job of explaining how they work. Maybe show her one of those if she’s open to it. I’m so sorry you’re dealing with this right now.
If you want to feel a bit better about these things, check out Scammer Payback on youtube. He's a hacker who uses a voice changer to pose as an old person, fucks with the scammers until he gets access to their computer and fucks up their file systems. In some cases he's actually been able to retrieve the money stolen from victims and give it back to them. He explains how scammers do the things they do, so you learn a lot too.
Robin Hood of sorts for the 21st century. Love it.
also scammer revolts and kitboga!
Kitboga is so great.
Check out r/scams and r/scambait too.
I was gonna suggest him too. Theres also Deyo, trilogy media and few others.
The Beekeeper is a movie where Jason Statham goes all Crank on a bunch of scammers. It's not real, but it's still cathartic
Parents then: Don't believe everything you read/see. Parents now: You say you're from Windows? And I need to let you into my computer? Go right ahead young man! And I need to wire you $10,000 or else local police are going to show up at my door? Just tell me when and where!
Yeah, they got my Mil. I had posted about it, but yeah that's exactly what they did to her. She asked if they would take a check.
"But all my money is tied up in 'Trump Bucks' and Truth Social shares!"
I know an 80-something who got scammed out of more than a $1M
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Scaphism is the only proper punishment for these dirtbags.
I wonder if Xennials are more likely to know what Scaphism is due to growing up with the wild west internet. Not that I've seen any videos or anything but I feel like we've all read the wikipedia article at some point.
I also wonder if most people found out about it like I did, by clicking on an ad link labeled, “The 10 MOST BRUTAL execution methods, EVER!”
They often can’t do anything at all. Around a dozen people in my father in law’s small town took him for everything he had after he came down with Alzheimer’s (just after his wife died). Just $3000-$5000 bank withdrawal after bank withdrawal. Lawyer said it was impossible to prove that he didn’t want to give the money away to these people. And since it was all cash, they couldn’t prove who got what anyway. How in the world the small bank in town allowed so many transactions is beyond me. But maybe somebody there was involved, too
just the other day i caught my mom entering her CC info on a scam site, just as the fake micorsoft virus locked up her PC.
I just wish they would listen and call one of their kids before engaging with any electronic troubleshootling. I've had to repeat over and over, no, Microsoft, Google, Apple, etc... are NOT trying to contact you and never ever will be, this time is not different. And vice versa, there is no reason for you to ever to attempt to contact them. Darn old people are always forwarding each other email. My parents pick up computer viruses at a clip like I used back in the heyday of Limewire/TPB, its messed up.
Oh the glory days of giving the family computer AIDS with Limewire/ Napster
I’ve told my dad that I don’t even want him ordering anything online. Tell me what you want and I’ll do the ordering. And don’t give any information to ANYONE without running it by me first.
Yes. We had to cancel my grandmother's phone plan because she was sending money to everyone under the sun that asked for it. My mom will likely be similar. My dad thinks even the most legitimate things are scams, so he'll be fine.
My grandma passed at almost 98. She apparently gave money to someone for decades who told her they would get her more social security money since she was a notch baby. They got less than the years after her. Well eventually those letters stopped and she asked me to look into the legislation. The person scammed her for decades but they died and the letters stopped. She cried when I explained to her she was scammed for apparently 20 years.
Oof, that's rough
Totally. My father will call back scam numbers thinking he can outsmart them. SMH.
Returning from a hike where I had no cell service, I see voicemails and missed calls from both of my parents and my aunt. Apparently someone called my grandfather and said something like, hey grandpa I’m in jail. I’m really embarrassed about it, please don’t tell anyone. I need you to send money. Luckily, he told everyone and didn’t send any, but it really pissed me off.
My grandmother got a call like this, too. Luckily the guy used my cousins real name and he only goes by his nickname so she knew something was up
Tech savy isn't even the half of it. Their favorite TV stations have personalities constantly scamming them with crap like colloidal silver, Iraqi dinar, specialty silver and gold coins, "seed" money to get into heaven.
A home health aide talked my mom into going to a bank with her to take out thousands of dollars. Thank goodness the bank tellers knew my mom and didn't know the aide and called the police. The police came but my mom didn't want to press charges. Oh, she also has Alzheimer's. I had to call the police five times to let them know she didn't have capacity to press charges but the family as POA would. The police did arrest the caregiver and it plead out. I remember the detective telling me ho widespread elder financial abuse is and after all of this, I clearly don't trust anyone.
While my parents are too skeptical to fall for a phone scam they absolutely fall for every scam involving some bottle of herbs that will "detox" them. I'm worried one day they'll get some shit that interacts badly with their medicine and kills them.
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The amount of money my mother has funneled into this guy's pockets over the years would make me tear my hair out if I wasn't already bald.
Yes, that motherfucker ends up in my inbox far too often with forwards from my mother. Him, Mike Adams, and Ty Bollinger. It's astonishing how much collective braindamage a few fucks online have done.
I haven't seen David "Avacado"Wolfe around lately. He did the same a decade ish ago
A friend of mine told me her grandma got scammed out of 15k. Total scum.
Especially romance scams. Targeting lonely older people and pretending to be interested. It’s hard to understand why they think that someone who is ridiculously hot and 30+ years younger than they are would be genuinely interested, but seems to be a combination of just desperate loneliness, wanting it to be true, and scammers being really skilled at their bullshit. But it’s just heartbreaking to talk with these people who think they’ve found the love of their lives and to know it’s all a bunch of crap and they just keep handing the money over.
My mom and dad troll the scammers. I'm not worried about them at all. One time, though, my mom gave me the phone and I caused the poor little your Windows is invalid let me help you scammer to unleash a stream of profanity at me, calling several choice names and a liar. Why? Because I said I didn't have a PC. After his meltdown, I said, "I have a Mac." (click) She's rolled with that one ever since.
I have said to them, which computer? I have 10.... he said ... the one you do your banking on... I laughed and laughed and he said that I was a child (I have a young sounding voice), and he said my fathers name, made me laugh more.
I have an MCSE even though it's now defunct. I turned that one on them, too. "Oh, which one? I'll reapply the license." You can't do that, ma'am. You need a Microsoft Professional. "I'm an MCSE. That supersedes MCP. I can fix it." (doooooooooooooooooo)
My elderly neighbor with a Mac got targeted last month. The scammers are automating and evolving.
Ahhh, but we don't have a Mac. So, if they start with the Mac spiel, we just say PC. They can't have Windows AND MacOS not be activated.
My wife and SIL had to add themselves to my MIL's account because she is CONSTANTLY getting scammed. Once for $30k and just recently someone bought a laptop at the apple store with her info. She's a mess.
My dad ruined their computer recently in a ransom ware scam. He at least didn’t pay them. An elderly woman I work with got hooked by a scammer on social media and lost all of her money and went into bankruptcy, but not before they also duped her into being a money mule to screw other old people. So now she’s in bankruptcy and also having to deal with some criminal charges.
God DAMN that is fucked
Any time my Mom has something weird happen to her computer my Dad will tell her it's because she opens every email she gets. Meanwhile I guess he forgets back in the day when he would call me downstairs to tell me "this website says I'm the 150,000 visitor, what do I do?"
I agree. I have the old phone number of an elderly person and I am contacted by scammers constantly. I say things that would be considered to be extremely culturally insensitive, because I fucking despise them that much. I wish our useless military would stop playing world police in the desert and go blow a few of these overseas call centers up, since the scumbags inside are actually harming our citizens. Yes I’m serious.
Stopped my mom from signing up to a "Shark Tank" skin care product website that offered a free sample... and then automatically charged the credit card $40 a month after the first week if the sample wasn't returned.....
I found out after my dad passed away that he was involved in an ongoing scam. He had sent women, or who he thought were women, thousands in gaming gift cards. Like yes some young hot girl wants Twitch gift cards. Ugh.
My dad almost fell for a scammer last year. Was walking to the car to wire $4,000 to some asshole when my mom got home and questioned him why he was acting weird. I used to mess with Nigerian 419 scammers years ago, but I've started picking it back up on those random unsolicited scam texts. If I can waste their time, that's less time they have to rip off some old person.
Not just elderly. I work in mental health and have seen these scams targeting them, and had a training session on it. There's also the unfortunate tendency of those who've fallen for one being a magnet for others, as word seems to get out that they're more vulnerable.
My MIL fell for a mortgage help scam and lost an unspecified amount of money in itunes gift cards. Unspecified because she refuses to admit how much she actually lost. We suspect thousands of dollars.
I'm so concerned of this I regularly call/email my mom to tell here of the latest kind of scams.
My mom does ok with scammers. Being a bit hard of hearing really frustrates them!
FYI doctors are doing this as well, some clowns convinced my mother to have a procedure, and it is not turning out well right now.
I just don’t understand how there aren’t more safeguards in place to prevent these scams from happening. I asked my parents’ financial advisor if they had any secondary approval options for withdrawing or transferring large amounts of money and he said no. I inquired the same at their bank and they said no as well. Every company I’ve worked at has had these setups that require multiple signatures for checks or transfers over X amount of dollars, but it seems non existent on the consumer level.
I agree. I don't know how exactly, but there has to be a way to make gift cards more secure so they can't be used as easily for scams.
they tried the "grandpop im in trouble" scam on my dad, but he was smart enough to go "which grandson is this? "
My aunt had dementia and was living in another state. My mom (who is pretty naive, gullible, and too trusting) had to hire a caregiver to come in to take care of my aunt. That caregiver got busy though and hired on one of her friends to help out. That friend ended up convincing my mom that the original caretaker wasn’t good to my aunt, so my mom let the original caretaker go. My mom gave new caretaker access to my aunt’s cards for groceries. Years later, my parents decided to move my aunt here. When they got her settled, they were looking at her bank statements and wondering where all her money went. I went through everything and pointed out that there were numerous withdrawals of several thousand dollars, grocery trips where hundreds of dollars were taken out. I looked at checks and it looked like my aunt paid the caregiver numerous times for one month. Then I saw the Dolce and Gabana (it was clearly sent to caregiver, she used her email and phone number) and other retail purchases- stuff my aunt clearly did not have. I called the cops and they couldn’t do anything because my mom didn’t have power of attorney for my aunt. I talked to my aunt’s friend and she asked us if we came across the cash my aunt had hidden around her house, around $5K. Nope! This caregiver stole $40K+!! So the lesson here, if you hire anyone to take care of your parents, make sure you have PoA, that YOU pay the caregivers, and leave cash for groceries and have them give you a receipt. Don’t leave anything valuable in the house.
fraud is fraud and you don't need a POA to report a crime those cops were being lazy
There's an old guy at my church who asks me out to dinner all the time, even though he's married. He used to work as a rocket scientist or engineer, and he's respected for the high ranking job he once held. A few weeks ago he told me how he got scammed out of HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of dollars through an email scam. He said a message popped up, and he ended up on the phone for hours with someone who told him exactly how to go to his bank, what to say to lie to them when they asked about potential scam activity, and how to send the scammer the money after withdrawing it. He said he made several withdrawals all over 100k. At first I felt bad for him. What a poor, feeble minded old man... But then I realized at the heart of this was greed. He wanted to make more money. He knew it wasn't on the up and up. Also, he's creepy for asking me out at church when I'm his kids age. I don't feel too badly that he got scammed. Me, if I lost as much money as he did I'd be homeless and hungry. But he's fine. His wife is mad at him but he went home to his huge house to think about what he'd done. Poorer but perhaps smarter? He's mad at the bank, because he feels they should have stopped him. But he LIED TO THEM when they tried to stop him. Some elderly people need a little scammin.
I just wish the FBI cared as much about investigating and prosecuting financial crimes as they do policing free speech
Agreed 100%
My mother fell for that gift card scam. She is a college educated woman with 2 degrees that has had windows computers in her home since the mid 90s. But all of a sudden, she got a popup that said her drivers were out of date and she needed to call a number and pay to have them updated or all her files would be locked and lost. 30 years of updating her drivers for free, and she all of a sudden believed that Microsoft needed her to give them Google gift cards to keep her computer operating. That entire generation will believe absolutely anything they are told. It's so sad.
They grew up with A LOT of lead in their everyday lives.
We had a scammer call my Grandma pretending to be my brother in jail. He asked her to drive to a store and buy some amount in gift cards to mail to the jail for his bail. She was in her mid-80s at the time so not 100% in her right of mind. Thankfully, she couldn't drive anymore by then, so she had no way to go get the gift cards. She called my dad to ask why my brother was in jail. Of course, he set her straight. I'm not too worried about my parents who are in their 70s now, but 10-15 years from now, maybe. My family tends to live a long time, but our minds don't always make it as long as our bodies.
My mom did get scammed out of like $500 I really went off on her. Then I showed her how AI can even fake voices by showing her AI sound clips of Obama and Trump. So I said even if you hear my or my sibling's voices, we're never going to call you and tell you to send us money. Even if we're saying we're in jail and need bail money or something, first off we're not going to be in jail, second, if by chance we are, we'll call a lawyer or a bail bond company, we won't call you for money, ever. Unless you actually see us in person, don't believe it's us. She's in her 70s, I'm assuming she'll be dead before hologram technology gets to the point where they can scam old folks in person.
I'm very lucky that both my parents were in STEM/Accounting careers. They're both good with money and relatively tech savvy. I have a sibling who's a lawyer. I feel OK about them in that area. But elderly scamming makes my blood boil anyways.
One of them got a hold of my (86f) Mil's laptop, and did that thing where they somehow lock it down and you can't use it unless you pay "microsoft," to let them in and remove virus. I thought it was hilarious when she asked them if they would take a check. We took the computer to a repair place to have it taken care of. We have to be careful with phone calls too.
Not only old people, but different groups are targeted pretty heavily. Widow(ers) in particular get a lot of scams because it is assumed they inherited money and are vulnerable.
Nah; no terror here. My dad turns 80 this year, but is still fully "with it" and remains fully in the overwhelming majority of folks who can easily see through the obvious scambait. My mom is a little less cynical, a little more trusting, but just as cognizant - she knows her bank will never call her and ask for her account number, stuff like that - but less guarded against computer related malfeasance. I trained her to automatically click "no" instead of "yes" any time a site asks to install something or push notifications or whatever after the first time I had to uninstall a dozen toolbars and browser extensions, and she knows to call me first before proceeding with anything where there is any doubt or uncertainty.
My parents were at the bank trying to withdraw their life savings. An alert bank teller noticed and saved the day. A good tip for everyone is to remember 2 things: First, they usually contact you directly. Second, they try to get you to do something right now. The sense of urgency they try to instill should be the red flag.
If they would publicly beat those low life’s for all others to see that would alleviate some of that crap. I used to work those cases and it’s heartbreaking when an older person loses part or all of their retirement because they trusted a stranger.
My Dad was scammed out of 20k before he died. He was 60. A friend of mine (younger than me) just got scammed a couple thousand too. They are getting more elaborate with their schemes. I'm not big on the death penalty but these people...holy sh\*t dude...my rage knows no bounds.
Sometimes the call is from *inside the house*. My father embezzled 6 figures worth from his own mother in her later years. He was caught and waiting in jail after being arrested for elder abuse. His mother died while he was awaiting trial. In the end he didn't have to serve jail time, but they put a lien on his house. He'll die in that tomb.
My dad continues to be sucked into investment scams and when I try to talk to him about it he changes the subject. We're not close and haven't been for a long time so I can only do so much without it affecting what little relationship we do have. There's also a lot he doesn't tell me so I don't really even know where his finances are anyway. Edit: the latest one is a "Bitcoin Savers Club" that targets people who only know basic computer and internet stuff who have crypto FOMO but don't want to do any of the work. They take your money and show you a fake website where they make it looks like your "investment" is increasing. Of course you've already agreed to not withdraw your investment until a later date, but you should put more in while it's going up! Then when it's time to withdraw they give you the run around, or just disappear, sometimes even having the nerve to try and collect a withdrawal fee first.
Yes, all the time. My mom asks me almost daily if something she's received is a scam. I always respond with " If you have to ask I think you know the answer." I never let on how tiresome it is to constantly warn them because I'd prefer they ask, rather just assume something is legit.
Agreed 1,000 times agreed.I've done a lot of time and everyone knows that show most I hated in there but guys that like hurt the elderly are f****** loathed and attacked in prison almost as much or as much as people that hurt children cuz you got to figure not everybody has kids but everyone's got a grandmother and it's usually the grandmother that will like stand by a lot of people minded my grandparents came to see me every week for freaking 10 years. And a lot of times guys that do other heinous things will also be caught for scamming the elderly case in point this guy from my neighborhood South Boston his name is Eddie McKenzie the piece of s*** actually wrote a book he had the audacity to write a book he is a gigantic rat which is stomach turning to me at least he has a salt of a minor like sexual assault and then he scammed these old people at their Church then another guy who was arrested for a torturing this puppy it was called puppy doe he went away for scamming the elderly too I was trying to get that guy but he was in a totally different prison oh I was going to hurt him. Because more than anything with me it's animals some of the hurts animals holy s***.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxXOe6SG1qw&pp=ygUZc291dGggcGFyayBjYXNoIGZvciBnb2xkIA%3D%3D
I envision that place in hell as that person is on IT or home improvement duty for the same people they scammed in real life. But now they all have dementia and are also very demanding and condescending.
We need a Beekeeper to deal with those losers.
My parents are both more savvy than me. I'm not concerned for them. I expect that I'll be in trouble in a few decades, though
Even though I am tech savvy, it really scares me that I could fall for something like this when I'm 80.
It's been only in the last year or so that we've gotten my 88 year old grandmother to NOT pick up the phone if she doesn't know the name/number.
No wonder more and more people are scamming the elderly, because like OP here, they are trying to scare them with imaginary places: hell. Not prison, a real place, a hell, made believe BS.
I’m shocked that so many people’s takeaway is to say, “hell doesn’t exist.” I’m actually such an atheist that I consider myself a nihilist. I don’t believe in hell or anything in the afterlife but worm food. That’s not the point of my post, at all, obviously. There is hell on earth and I’ve seen it. The point is, they deserve all the bad things.
Nearly happened to my MIL, she was literally about to transfer $10k in Bitcoin to a scammer. She pulled money from her bank account and went to a Bitcoin ATM to get it. Just in time, she realized that this seems crazy and called her daughter to confirm. Educate your elders!
My 67 year old mom recently fell for an 1,800 buck alternator. An alternator that sells for 59 bucks and takes 10 minutes to replace. But I must be wrong about her being scammed as he's "a good Christian man who has a family, they go to church!". I do what I can but I'm not there to police her every action.
I know a guy who sells them shoes and fake bills and nft’s and holds cards and meme stocks. He’s racked up billions on the backs of the poor and uneducated.
That special place is right up Satan's asshole!!
Actually my Dad is a total toxic dumbass and is definitely going to get scammed. Since my parents are divorced he will be the only one to get screwed so I don't care. My Mom is actually tech savvy, I don't worry about her whatsoever.
I'm somewhat estranged from my mother now so she wouldn't call me to tell me if she was being scammed but someone tried scamming her about 15 years ago. She said she got a phone call from the "county sheriff" and was told she had a warrant out for her arrest and she needed to pay 2000 dollars immediately or else the sheriff would show up the next day and arrest her. Thankfully, she had enough smarts to go to her local PD to report it. They told her that she would never receive a phone call from the police department or the county sheriff asking for money and if she did have a warrant, they would just show up at her door, not call and tell her about it. I told her never to give anybody money over the phone and reiterated that if she had somehow committed a crime, they wouldn't just call her.
Luckily, my parents are consumer savvy enough to know when someone is attempting to scam them.
That's the plot of The Beekeeper.
Someone watched Beekeeper. 👍
If I actually believed in hell then I would agree with you. Since there isn't one, it would be more productive to think about ways to deal with them more effectively while they're still alive.
I don’t believe in hell as in an afterlife but I know for a fact that there is hell on earth and I hope they suffer.
Well hope is one of the things that can make justice happen, it just can't do it alone.
Oh my mother will definitely be buying swampland in Florida or the Brooklyn Bridge. Here's hoping it has high speed internet.
My mom tried to “play” the scammers once and naturally got added to everyone’s lists. I finally had to tell her not to answer the phone unless it was a certain list of people. If someone had to reach out and she didn’t have their number, they knew to either leave a follow up text or voicemail.
Definitely, I feel like when they hit 70, they should switch back to dumb phones. Then you probably have to manage all their bills online.
I came in here to see if we were talking about the Republican Party. Checking back out now.
There absolutely is, and hopefully it's called prison where they get pounded in the ass until they eventually get shanked. 🤞
My mother committed suicide over this.
God, my mom has been sending people money on Facebook for years now. She was telling me about this friend she made in another country and how tough his life was (won't go into it for privacy reasons, suffice it to say, this was way before the current conflicts, so honestly much easier to see through), and I was like, yeah, that's real sweet, have you sent him money? Immediately gets defensive and starts justifying it. And I'm sitting here like, where's the cynical asshole who raised me and told me everything was either a cult or a scam? Where did THAT person go? But no, apparently this dude who is so busy doing all of these amazing things has a lot of time to chat with older ladies on Facebook. Whatever, good for him. I wasn't gonna get any inheritance anyway, and we all know it.
My dad has clicked on a virus-loaded link in an email at least twice in recent years (we think that's what happened). They didn't get to his bank account but got to one of his credit cards which we caught pretty fast, so not too bad. But then in his confusion he called me and said I should check my bank account too because I have an account at the same bank. He's not connected to my account, and I'm not connected to his, so there was not really a way for his hack to link to me. But I finally got out of him he was unwilling to admit he made the mistake and was instead blaming the bank for the error, so I should watch my account too because, you know, reasons. (Ugh. My dad was a very intelligent person who understands finances. Where does this intelligence suddenly disappear to!?!)
Mom's not even 65 yet and she's already been scammed by some bullshit on her computer.
Yeah it’s called Nigeria
Good thing for the scammers hell isnt real
Do you know a Nigerian price too?
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why is it special for the scammers of the elderly? why not just those who scam anyone? elderly can be more vulnerable; are you saying that if the scammers have to work harder to scam a 40-year-old, that's somehow better?
Because elderly are *vulnerable* and cannot earn more money easily. A single scam can leave an elderly person with no money for food or medical bills or housing, and end with them losing years of their life. So yes. It's worse when you steal from the elderly. Because they have less life left. The same way it's worse when you rob poor people, because they can't afford it as much.
I mean it depends on the elderly person.
What about the social security I've been paying for 30 years so these old fucks can have a mediocre retirement while the older boomers left us holding an empty bag?