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81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

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Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#71

Post by JoeAltmaier »

saryant wrote: post #68
uptown wrote: post #56

Anybody 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 "T…

I think this should be actionable offense. But its been going on for years in one form or another. Used to get a big ad packet from a local dept store - with the bill mixed into the middle. They were hoping I wouldn't notice, and my balance would roll over so I'd pay charges. Instead I took the reply envelope, put my check in and stuffed it full of the ads too.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#72

Post by CrimsnBlade »

I used to get calls like this on my work phone when I was working as a mechanic. The scammer would tell me to send him money with some sort of green dot card or something. He kept saying once I send it I will be enjoying financial freedom. I don't think they specifically target old people, maybe just people that are more likely to jump at opportunities before they process how ludicrous they are. I was in a blue-collar environment, maybe that was part of it, though I'm not sure how they would have known that.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#73

Post by nadams »

adekok wrote: post #50

Once the relatives get wind of this, there is a simple solution. Get a new phone number for the person in question. And even more critical don't cancel the old one . Put an answering machine on the old one, and have a "safe" relative check it every other day or so. Give the new phone number to family and friends. After a few weeks of getting nothing but answering machine messages, the scammers will go away. If the ol…

> Once the relatives get wind of this, there is a simple solution. Get a new phone number for the person in question. And even more critical don't cancel the old one.

Or an even better idea - transfer the number to a reputable VOIP provider and setup the number so that it rejects calls from all numbers except for the ones you specify. Your loved ones can still call but any other scammer would get a busy signal or whatever you specify as the destination. You could even direct unknown calls to you (you can setup a time condition) - and that would give you the ability to add that number to the whitelist if it was a legit caller.

Added benefit - the service will be vastly cheaper.

> If the old number has been cancelled, the scammers know you're on to them.

I can guarantee you that they don't care if you are "on to them". They just stop calling because no one is picking up the line.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#74

Post by kalleboo »

vinceyuan wrote: post #35

Similar things happen in China every day. Government, police, banks warn people many times, but there are still some people believing they will win a lot of money. They forget "No pay, no gain".

In Japan they've gone so far as to install phone jammers at ATMs to aid against the scam that's common here where people will call elderly people claiming to be their sons saying they need money.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#75

Post by kelvin0 »

new299 wrote: post #31

Here'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…

Well this telemarketer is probably out forever: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIVfrBFc5og

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#76

Post by simonw »

wahsd wrote: post #66
scrubby wrote: post #21

My 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…

I think it's a couple of things.

The first is the sunk cost falacity / escalation of commitment ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escalation_of_commitment ) - if you've already given the scammers $500, your choices are either to admit that you've been scammed and will never see that money again. The alternative is to convince yourself that you really are going to get the money (and you haven't been scammed) if you just send them a little bit more...

The second factor is that at a certain age most people begin to lose their judgement. You don't have to have full on dementia, just slightly less good judgement than you had when you were younger, in order to fall for on of these scams.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/your-money/as-cognitivity-... - "As Cognition Slips, Financial Skills Are Often the First to Go". Interestingly, financially savvy people who actively manage their money are at a much higher risk of losing everything to bad decisions at an older age.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#77

Post by cbd1984 »

relet wrote: post #65
celticninja wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If you have enough on the ball to do something like that, instead of operating on pure emotion, you're not going to fall for a lot of these scams anyway.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#78

Post by simonw »

goodJobWalrus wrote: post #25

Does 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?

As Cognition Slips, Financial Skills Are Often the First to Go: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/25/your-money/as-cognitivity-...

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#79

Post by DanBC »

saint_fiasco wrote: post #53
goodJobWalrus wrote: post #25

Does 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?

It's hard to tell because the old people who are more sophisticated and know a lot about money are usually the kind of people who keep themselves mentally active in their old age. That means they are both more sophisticated and physiologically more mentally healthy. It's hard to separate the two.

That's not how dementia works.

Re: 81-year-old man driven to death by phone scammers

#80

Post by kelvin0 »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #38
new299 wrote: post #31

Here'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…

I once kept a "Microsoft tech support" scammer [1] on the phone for over 30 minutes while I pretended to download and install some bit of malware he was trying to foist on me. When he finally realised what I was doing, I owned-up and politely asked why he was trying to rob me. He gave a loud scream of what sounded like pure frustration and hung up. I was laughing so hard I almost passed-out. [1] https://en.wikipedia.…

Yeah, also got a call from one of these guys telling me me Windows PC was infected. I asked him if I could have his coordinates so I could call the police and confirm if this was a scam or not (obviously I knew this was a scam). So the guy at the other end of the phone tells me: "No problem, I can connect you to the police right now.." and proceeds to pause a bit and starts "Yes, Police chief here..." prentending to be the Police using the same voice and not even trying to disguise his voice ... good times!
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