Community Chat

[september]

Thanks for your comments, plaid pants. I hate to see the "victims" get blamed. And the elderly in our country don't have much of a voice, especially the ones who are alone and don't have family members to care for them. I find the comments about "how can they fall for this"....to be so insensitive.

[Plaid Pants]

On 11/22/2014 september said:

Thanks for your comments, plaid pants. I hate to see the "victims" get blamed. And the elderly in our country don't have much of a voice, especially the ones who are alone and don't have family members to care for them. I find the comments about "how can they fall for this"....to be so insensitive.

I agree. It's like they are saying, "Well, how can they be so stupid to fall for a scam?"

Trust me, when you have an elderly person, who isn't as sharp as they once were, then you understand how they can, and do, fall for scams.

[september]

Many very intelligent, once successful people...once they get into their older years, no longer can make the judgement calls that they once did. And so many of them don't have family members involved in their lives....as we did years ago, when families were closer. So yes...these people fall victim to all the scams going around. And there are more of them now, than ever before.

[Colonel Meow]

On 11/22/2014 september said:

Thanks for your comments, plaid pants. I hate to see the "victims" get blamed. And the elderly in our country don't have much of a voice, especially the ones who are alone and don't have family members to care for them. I find the comments about "how can they fall for this"....to be so insensitive.

I truly did not intend to sound insensitive with my comment. I have heard of many scam calls, but had not yet heard this one about the "Favorite Grandson".

This scam, in particular, made me incredulous - so I asked a follow up question to see if posters had frequently heard of this particular scam working.

I am certainly not a "victim blamer", and I should have clarified my earlier post so that this was made more apparent.

[kdgn]

On 11/22/2014 Burnsite said:

I like the emails that tell me I have won money, but have to send a few hundred today in order to claim my "prize." My goodness.

Who would fall for that?

It's also a phone scam telling a senior that they have won a sweepstakes like the Canadian Sweepstakes. They give a Canadian phone number for contact information. When they do that the local authorities can't do a thing about it.

My mom was in the early stages of dementia when she got that phone call. She thought she had entered the sweepstakes and was thrilled to learn she had won a huge amount of money. These people know how to gain a senior's confidence. No amount of talking from us would convince her that it was a scam.

They wiped out her entire bank account. Everything. There was nothing left.

[september]

Oh, I wasn't referring to anyone in particular with my comment, Col Meow. It's just that I read a lot of comments on this board, and I think the one about blaming elderly victims kind of incorporated a lot of past comments I've read here.

And in my experience...my older BIL did fall for the grandchild scam. he's a former DA in his county.

[september]

I am really sorry to hear that, kdgn, but not surprised. It's good to get this info out there. I think a lot of victims (or their families) are embarrassed, so they keep it quiet. Then the scammers are free to go out and do it again.

[Plaid Pants]

On 11/22/2014 kdgn said:

On 11/22/2014 Burnsite said:

I like the emails that tell me I have won money, but have to send a few hundred today in order to claim my "prize." My goodness.

Who would fall for that?

It's also a phone scam telling a senior that they have won a sweepstakes like the Canadian Sweepstakes. They give a Canadian phone number for contact information. When they do that the local authorities can't do a thing about it.

My mom was in the early stages of dementia when she got that phone call. She thought she had entered the sweepstakes and was thrilled to learn she had won a huge amount of money. These people know how to gain a senior's confidence. No amount of talking from us would convince her that it was a scam.

They wiped out her entire bank account. Everything. There was nothing left.

My dad got a letter saying that he had won a Canadian sweepstakes. He fell for it. He loves Canada so much, and on his visits there, he had such positive experience with the people there, that it was inconceivable to him, that this letter, from Canada, could possibly be a scam.

I knew that it was, so I called the Canadian post master, gave them the information, plus the post master for here in the States.

So, yeah, I'm a little sensitive when people take the attitude that seniors must be stupid to fall for these scams, because they surely wouldn't. That they are smarter than that.

As I said, when you have an elderly loved one, who is too trusting, is believing of everything that they are told, and due the brain aging, and other medical reasons, such as dementia, it is very easy to see, and to understand, how the elderly can, and do fall for these scams. And it isn't their fault.

[Colonel Meow]

On 11/22/2014 september said:

Oh, I wasn't referring to anyone in particular with my comment, Col Meow. It's just that I read a lot of comments on this board, and I think the one about blaming elderly victims kind of incorporated a lot of past comments I've read here.

And in my experience...my older BIL did fall for the grandchild scam. he's a former DA in his county.

Thanks for responding.

[september]

Oh, and as far as recognizing a "grandchild's" voice over the phone...many older people don't talk to their grandchildren via phone very often, so when they hear a young voice over the phone....and the caller claims to be a grandchild...they can't figure out if that voice really sounds like what they remembered...

Really...this scam is one of the easiest to fall for, and I'm sad that it succeeds as often as it does.