Scammers will find a way to trick older people with the most underhanded schemes. Most older folks receive Social Security and it is an important income source for many retirees. When someone calls them and tells them that there is “legal activity” or that someone is using their Social Security number illegally, it creates alarm. That is exactly what the scammers want. A fear response gets the call recipient to act.
Fake calls to elders are nothing new, but many seniors are not aware of how often these scammers will hit on them, looking for the elder’s personal information. Aging parents need a warning and reminder from family not to fall for it.
An example was my mother-in-law, Alice, who was 95 at the time she got her call. She had recently had a dispute with Medicare about an ambulance bill and she was waiting for resolution. She got a call from someone saying he was from Social Security and that the had a fraud report about her Medicare bill. They wanted to “verify” her Social Security number. Alice was frail at the time and her normal radar in spotting fake things was just not working anymore. She gave out her SS number, full name, address, mother’s maiden name, date of birth, and all a thief would need to steal her identity.
We, the family, found out about this by chance the next day, when we happened to visit. Alice vaguely remembered that she did reveal all this information and had a question about it. We were horrified to learn that she had opened herself up to identity theft. We had to act fast.
We worked with her on the phone, reported possible ID theft, cancelled her credit cards and applied for new ones. We went personally with her to the bank to get a new account number. She had investments and we went through the same process, getting new numbers for everything and informing all institutions that they needed to have a fraud alert on her accounts. It was a mess!
Disaster Averted
Alice had no thefts as a result of the protective action we took for her. But we acted less than 24 hours after she had given away her personal data. We saved her in time. Many people will not have that opportunity and can be wiped out financially when someone poses as the elder to withdraw funds or use credit cards.
The Federal Trade Commission offers some actual examples of how the recorded call sounds. On their consumer advice page, there is a fake Social Security call recording. Listen so you can see how an older person can be tricked by it.
Robocalls pretending to be from any government agency are successful in tricking people into giving out their personal information. Public warnings from law enforcement and community organizations have not stopped the amount stolen every year. Family are the best source to educate aging parents about this risk and other fake calls.
Takeaways:
- Warn your aging parents to hang up on any robocall. No one needs them!
- Play the fake call recordings mentioned above from the FTC with your aging parent and help them see and hear how these robocalls work.
- Even if your aging loved one is very smart, or has a background in finance, accounting or other field, it is no guarantee that they won’t be caught off guard as they age. Anyone can be tricked at a vulnerable moment.
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