HOT PURSUIT
With scams targeting older adults on the rise, my family recently found this out the hard way. It’s something that sent my mother into a tailspin for several hours.
A few weeks ago, mom innocently thought she had computer troubles when a screen flashed saying she needed tech support. A deceptive pop-up told mom that her Apple computer had been compromised or hacked. She called a phone number to fix the issue.
Like all other technical support scams, the Apple scam preys on older people’s lack of knowledge about computers and cybersecurity. A pop-up message or blank screen usually appears on a computer or phone, telling them their device is damaged and needs fixing. When they call the support number for help, the scammer requests remote access and/or demands them to pay a fee to have it repaired.
The scammer in my mom’s case had her convinced she needed to go directly to the bank and withdraw a substantial amount of money followed by putting it into a remote cash machine. Of course, they promised they would return the money the next day. They initially wanted my mom to drive to Milwaukee of all places. They eventually settled on a convenience store in a small town 15 miles away from mom’s bank.
During this entire ordeal, the fraudster went to great lengths to keep mom on the phone the entire time (more than two hours) while she raced around to the bank and elsewhere to comply with their demands. As you can imagine, they kept her on the phone, even while she was driving, so she wouldn’t be tempted to call anyone like her children about what was happening. They were even so cunning to convince mom to lie to the bank as to what the money was for.
With cash in hand, and a lot of it I might add, mom set off for the convenience store where luckily, she ran into an alert clerk who convinced her she was being scammed. Mom headed back home with the money, slept on it for the night and returned it to the bank the next day.
This brought back flashbacks of when my dad was scammed of several thousand dollars a few years back in a “grandparents scam.” In that incident, the caller pretended to be a grandchild who needed money for car repairs. My dad loaded them up with gift cards from Walmart.
Financial crimes against older adults can be devastating, often leading people with no way to recoup their losses. In 2020, at least 66% of tech support scam victims were age 60 or older. This group suffered a staggering $116 million in losses.
According to the FBI, in 2021 there were 92,371 older victims of fraud resulting in $1.7 billion in losses.
Mom came so close to losing her money, but in the end it all turned out fine.
The rule of thumb to remember with the computer scams is to know that legitimate support won’t ever proactively seek you out to fix an issue. It’s a good idea to be wary, be assertive and be protective of your personal information.
I know my mom was a bit hesitant about me sharing her hacker story. It’s certainly not to embarrass her, but rather teach other seniors to watch out for scams. They are running rampant.
It’s time for all of us to go in hot pursuit of avoiding scams and giving fraudsters a run for the money.