Wouldn't all this be effectively prevented with either blacklisting all numbers outside the US or a whitelist on the elderly person's phone?
81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
61–70 of 146 posts
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#62In Indonesia, a particular scam is calling people (esp. parents) very early in the morning, when people are still sleeping, "We're cops. Your son/daughter is arrested for drugs possession. Send us lots of money NOW or we'll send him/her to jail." followed by what sounds like someone crying in the background. Since you're barely awake, and your son/daughter is indeed away (eg. on night shift or staying with friends),…
" how do they know the relationship of the victims" Probably they don't. If the victim says "but I don't have a son" they just hang-up. Scattershot approach, not targeted.
or start with "your child has been arrested" when they say "what Mary Lou?" you respond with "yes we have your daughter".
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#63Anybody have a solution for endless calls to a cell phone with a myriad of "google registry" or "small business whatever" scams? The calls started right around when I switched from being a Sprint customer to a Verizon pre-paid customer, but I can't definitively say Verizon sold my number. I ignore and block every call, but I receive anywhere from one to three calls a day. Switching numbers isn't really an option I wa…
I've been getting these for a while, and I'm a Sprint customer. I also know others who use T-Mobile who get them as well. I don't believe it's limited to a single carrier.
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#64Does anyone know what happens to the people when they get old, so they become gullible? Is there some physiological mechanism, or is it just that older people are less sophisticated about those issues?
I've read some sources that state as adults get older, they lose some of their inhibitions even if they don't suffer from dementia. However, I couldn't find any scholarly papers to back that up. Most of them are specific case studies, not statistical investigations.
What I did find however, is a paper that claims older adults are not more likely to be defrauded than the rest of the population. I'm somewhat skeptical of the claim, but it should be evaluated: http://pps.sagepub.com/content/9/4/427.short
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#65Earlier quoted context omitted.
" how do they know the relationship of the victims" Probably they don't. If the victim says "but I don't have a son" they just hang-up. Scattershot approach, not targeted.
or start with "your child has been arrested" when they say "what Mary Lou?" you respond with "yes we have your daughter".
At which point you can relax, because you have a boy called Josh.
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#66My 85 year old grandfather didn't commit suicide, but he was taken for every penny of his meager life savings by the Jamaican lottery scam. My dad discovered what was going on, called the police, but was told there was nothing they could do. My grandfather firmly believed and probably still does that he had won the lottery and was just waiting for a payout. We basically had to revoke his phone privileges to keep him…
I really think there is some other maybe even unidentified kind of mental issue going on with this kind of scam. I say that because I know of some people who are locked into the Iraqi dinar scam and simply cannot see what is going on in spite of being otherwise ostensibly smart and intelligent people. Maybe it's "greed" , but it seems to me that it's more of a vulnerability due to hopes and dreams not matching topic sophistication.
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#67Does anyone know what happens to the people when they get old, so they become gullible? Is there some physiological mechanism, or is it just that older people are less sophisticated about those issues?
Why assume that scams only work on old people?
This particular scam is targeted at old people, but plenty of very lucrative scams target working age adults.
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#68Anybody have a solution for endless calls to a cell phone with a myriad of "google registry" or "small business whatever" scams? The calls started right around when I switched from being a Sprint customer to a Verizon pre-paid customer, but I can't definitively say Verizon sold my number. I ignore and block every call, but I receive anywhere from one to three calls a day. Switching numbers isn't really an option I wa…
I started getting those after creating an LLC. I've tried to screw with them but they seem pretty good at sniffing that out and they just hang up whenever I tell them I "need to go find some paperwork" and leave the phone muted on my desk.
I also started getting letters that look like bills for my LLC but are actually just junk mail for SEO services. Those ones really pissed me off. Looks just like an invoice with "This is not a bill" in tiny font at the bottom.
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#69Here's what I did to stop various scammers calling, I talked to them endlessly. They seem to almost never hang up, they'll just keep going and going. So I was bored one day and decided to see how the scam played out: http://41j.com/blog/2015/08/phonecall-from-a-scammer/ They did call again, I picked them up on the fact that it was a scam and asked them how they justify their actions to themselves and ask questions ab…
If you want to talk to them endlessly without wasting your own time, forward them to Lenny (phone 347-514-7296) https://www.reddit.com/r/itslenny/
Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers
#70In Indonesia, a particular scam is calling people (esp. parents) very early in the morning, when people are still sleeping, "We're cops. Your son/daughter is arrested for drugs possession. Send us lots of money NOW or we'll send him/her to jail." followed by what sounds like someone crying in the background. Since you're barely awake, and your son/daughter is indeed away (eg. on night shift or staying with friends),…
" how do they know the relationship of the victims" Probably they don't. If the victim says "but I don't have a son" they just hang-up. Scattershot approach, not targeted.
In Sweden there are lots of websites where you can look up the phone number and retrieve the address of that person, as well as other people living at the same address. From this information it is rather easy to do reverse lookups and figure out the potential relationships.