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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

#81

Post by JamesBarney »

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 don't think it's greed. I think it's hope. Most of the people I know who fall for these scams are not any dumber or greedier than other people I know. They do seem to be much more optimistic and positive though.

Think if this same person has late stage cancer and believed they were gonna make it despite all odds it would be an inspiring lifetime movie. But unfortunately I think these are the same people who also believe that a Nigerian prince needs them to transfer some money before they will be handsomely rewarded against all odds.

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

#84

Post by kbenson »

nadams wrote: post #73
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 wha…

> 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.

I think that depends on how big a fish you are to them, or at least your relative size in their food chain. If you have someone worth a few hundred to you every month, you'll probably put in some extra work if you can't get that money for a month or two to try to recover that source.

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

#85

Post by memracom »

There is a solution to this problem.

1. Change the phone number system to require 207 digit phone numbers instead of the current 10 digits.

2. Assign random phone numbers to everybody.

Now the only people who can call you are the people who know you. You have to actively share your number with people. If people call random numbers they will get "not in service" messages all day long.

We have 20 years of experience with NEW communication systems with NEW addressing systems where people can't connect without knowing your email address or IM handle. It can be done, i.e. it is workable to require people to share contact info before you can communicate. People will find a way.

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

#86

Post by triangleman »

https://www.google.com/search?q=apple+tech+support

Google still takes ads from iYogi. If you call iYogi they will try to scam you, over and over again. This has been going on for years. Has no one complained to Google about this? What about Apple, aren't they concerned about their brand being tarnished over unwitting seniors typing "Apple tech support" into their browsers and running into a tech support scam?

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

#87

Post by eljimmy »

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?

I think it varies person to person and very much like you stated it comes from their naivety.

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

#88

Post by noxToken »

memracom wrote: post #85

There is a solution to this problem. 1. Change the phone number system to require 207 digit phone numbers instead of the current 10 digits. 2. Assign random phone numbers to everybody. Now the only people who can call you are the people who know you. You have to actively share your number with people. If people call random numbers they will get "not in service" messages all day long. We have 20 years of experience wi…

My knee-jerk reaction was to balk to a 207 digit number system, but after digesting it, I realized that this isn't a terrible idea. 207 is little much, but longer length numbers in an age where everything can be scanned, pasted, mailed, etc. is actually smart.

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

#89

Post by justinsb »

I don't understand why Western Union et al aren't being held accountable, at the very least in the form of a class action lawsuit. It seems that either the money transmitters aren't obeying the "Know Your Customer" laws (are they somehow exempt?), or they are knowingly allowing people to be victims of fraud to increase their profit.

Making it much harder to transfer money anonymously seems both helpful in these cases, and lucrative for lawyers.

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

#90

Post by uptown »

jroseattle wrote: post #63
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'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.

There are some Android apps that crowd-sources block lists for these types of calls (whenever I google the number they turn-up as known telemarketers) but I don't believe the security model on the iPhone permits intercepting and blocking these calls.
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