At Discovery, we care about you and want to protect you and your loved ones’ financial well-being. If you have older parents or grandparents, please share this information with them on senior scams. It’s provided courtesy of the National Council On Aging (NCOA, www.ncoa.org).
Funeral & Cemetery Scams
In one approach, scammers read obituaries and call or attend the funeral service of a complete stranger to take advantage of the grieving widow or widower. Claiming the deceased had an outstanding debt with them, scammers will try to extort money from relatives to settle the fake debts.
Telemarketing Scams
One example is the pigeon drop, where the con artist tells the individual that he/she has found a large sum of money and is willing to split it if the person will make a “good faith” payment by withdrawing funds from his/her bank account.
Sweepstakes & Lottery Scams
Here, scammers inform their mark that they have won a lottery or sweepstakes of some kind and need to make some sort of payment to unlock the supposed prize.
The ‘Grandparent Scam’
Scammers will place a call to an older person, and when the mark (victim) picks up, they will say something along the lines of: “Hi Grandma, do you know who this is?” When the unsuspecting grandparent guesses the name of the grandchild the scammer most sounds like, the scammer has established a fake identity. Once “in,” the fake grandchild will usually ask for money to solve some unexpected financial problem.
The best step to curtailing senior fraud is education and prevention.
We thank the NCOA for sharing these tips and encourage you to read the full article here.
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