Wednesday, January 16, 2019

Frauds used against seniors 5 and 6

The fraud artists are merciless and without conscience. Victims of these cheaters are so embarrassed to admit they have been so gullible that they refuse to report what happened to them. The cheaters count on this. Don’t forget that you what happened to you probably has happened to lots of people. Sometimes the losses are so large that the victim has to adopt a different lifestyle. 

The number five used against seniors is the Counterfeit Prescription Drugs fraud.

Many seniors cannot afford some of the medications they are prescribed. To reduce costs, many will search the Internet to find cheaper drugs or more specialized medicines. Fraudsters set up fake online websites to cater to this need. Seniors pay for medications that do not work.

To protect yourself from this fraud, check out sites and be careful of fake sites where you pay for something and it never arrives. If you use online pharmacies, use only the ones that have a storefront as well. For example, Costco Pharmacy online (Canadian site).

The sixth fraud used against seniors is Charity Cheaters.
The fraud works as follows, callers claim to represent charities to help pay for disaster recovery or to provide aid for victims of a natural or man-made disaster. After a natural disaster, the fraudsters will create fake websites, go fundme pages and other online fake sites to get people to give money to help those affected by the disaster. Many seniors are very giving people and they want to help so they will respond to a request to help.


To protect yourself from this type of fraud, and you receive a phone call requesting money, ask that they send you the information by mail, not by email, and do not give credit card information. Also, ask if you will get an official donation receipt for tax credits.

Frauds used against seniors 3 and 4

The more you know about frauds and scams, the less chance you have of becoming a victim. Technology is playing a bigger part in fraud schemes, but many seniors do not have the latest technology but we do use email.

The number three fraud used against seniors is email fraud.
In the first variation, a senior will receive an email that mimics trusted business and government agencies, asking for personal information.  In the second variation called Spearphishing, an email appears to be from business or person you know as the email starts with “Hi (your name)” instead of “Dear sir/madam.” The email will ask for information or it will have an attachment which it wants you to open. If you open the attachment your computer will be infected with spyware or malware. (These are computer programs that can search for and send personal information to the fraudster.)

To protect yourself from giving away personal information, remember that no genuine financial company will ask you to provide sensitive information online (or by phone). Be smart, verify any requests from a friend to send passwords or other personal information. Also, when you get a notice to update your software, do it.

Fraudsters will also go onto your social media accounts to get information, so keep secrets secret – limit what information you put on social media. It is a good idea to change passwords often; avoid using variations of just one. Avoid these common passwords that are used by seniors both for their PIN and computer passwords:
·       Birthdates
·       1234
·       Phone numbers
·       Addresses
·       Social Insurance Number
·       Your spouse’s or dog’s name!

A third variation of the email scam is a Travel Scam. These can also be done by Telephone, but as they are more commonly attempted through email now than telephone, I am putting this fraud here. The fraud works as follows:
 A senior gets an email or a telephone call claiming that they have won a free vacation and they don’t remember entering any contest!

Or the senior went to a fair or an exhibition and completed a prize form. A few days later they receive a phone call or an email stating they have won and all they have to do is give some credit card or personal information or cash to hold the prize.
To protect yourself from these frauds, do not let anyone pressure you into an immediate agreement. In BC, if you have signed up for a travel club or holiday certificate, you have 7 days to cancel. Check your location, there may be similar laws in place to protect yourself.

Here are a few tips to protect yourself from email and other frauds.
Hover your cursor over any link you are asked to click on before you click; then look at the URL to confirm that it is a legitimate address
e.g. You get an e-mail from your municipal government office but when you hover over click here, what you see in the bottom left screen is http://smithjones.ca/securemessage.html
What you should see is https://nameof municipality.ca/

If the address does not look ok to you DO NOT CLICK – unless you are 100% sure the address is legitimate. I recommend that you delete the e-mail immediately. 

If you buy online make sure you are sending credit card information to a secure site. This is one way to make sure the site is secure:

On the page where you enter your credit card information, the URL in your browser's address bar should begin with “https://” not HTTP://.  Hyper Text Transfer Protocol Secure (HTTPS) is the secure version of HTTP, the protocol over which data is sent between your browser and the website that you are connected to. The 'S' at the end of HTTPS stands for 'Secure'. It means all communications between your browser and the website are encrypted.
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The fourth largest fraud used against seniors is the Sweepstakes and Fake Lotteries Scams

The senior receives an email or a telephone call that tells the senior that they are a WINNER!!!! – all they have to do is:
Pay a shipping fee and taxes
Buy something
Give your credit card number
Attend a presentation
Generally, the prize is of little value; it is worth less than you pay to get it on your own, or it never arrives.

To protect yourself from this fraud, do not buy lottery tickets through telephone solicitation. Remember, if the win is legitimate, you do not have to purchase something nor must you pay to get the prize or winnings.


Monday, January 14, 2019

Frauds used against seniors 2

There is a lot of information about frauds and scams and how to protect yourself. What I found is that there is not a great deal of information about the frauds and scams that target seniors. So, as I was working on creating a workshop on this topic for seniors, I thought I would add the information to the blog. The more you know about frauds and scams, the less chance you have of becoming a victim.

Financial Fraud is the number two fraud used against seniors, and there are many variations of how this fraud works. The first scam is called a Pyramid Scheme
This fraud works as follows:
The senior is recruited and invests in a scheme, and is initially very successful and the fraudster starts to pressure the senior to recruit new investors who are expected to bring in more investors. Recruiting newcomers is more important than selling products. Investors who get in early take their profits from those who join later until finally there are no new investors and the most recent people to join lose their money.

The second variation on this fraud is called a Ponzi Scheme. This is very similar to the Pyramid Scheme. It works as follows:
The fraudster entices the senior by offering consistently higher returns than one would normally make at the bank or in the stock market. The senior places an investment with the fraudster and is encouraged to invest more and more of their savings. They are also encouraged to tell friends and family about the investment opportunity. What the fraudster is doing is paying returns to early investors from their own money or the money paid by subsequent investors rather than from genuinely earned profit.

The third variation of Financial Fraud used against seniors is called the Cryptocurrency Scams
The fraud works this way:
The senior is notified that they have won a prize, and all they have to do is pay a shipping fee and taxes. They may be told they have to pay a fine due to an error in their Income Tax. The fraudster asks you to send the money using Bitcoin. Once their cash is converted to Bitcoin they cannot get it back.

To protect yourself against Cryptocurrency, do not convert your cash to Bitcoins to give to anyone.

The fourth variation of Financial Fraud used against seniors is called the Inheritance Scheme
The fraud works this way:
The senior is told that someone very rich has died and they are in line to receive a huge inheritance (details vary). All they have to do is provide bank account details . . . and maybe pay a fee for administration or taxes.

To protect yourself against the Inheritance Scheme, if you are asked for personal information or bank information or asked to send money, don’t.

The fifth variation of Financial Fraud used against seniors is called the Cheque Overpayment Scam
Many seniors may have to sell goods to make expenses and the fraudster asks the senior if they would accept a cheque from the “them” in excess of the amount owed. The pitch may be similar to this, “I love the (item) and would like to buy it, however, I am short on cash, but I just received my paycheck from (names a legit company). The fraudster shows the senior the check and says, “I can give you my check and you can give me the difference back to me.” The fraudster asks the senior to go to his/her bank and deposit the check and give the excess funds back to the purchaser. In about six weeks the check is returned for not enough funds or is a rejected as it is flagged as a fraud and the senior is out the item and the money.
To protect yourself when you are selling “stuff”, never let the buyer pay more than the agreed price by cheque and then ask for the balance in cash.

The fifth Financial Fraud used against seniors is a Real Estate Fraud
The fraud works this way:
A fraudster assumes the identity of an individual homeowner and then uses that false identity to:
·       Assume the title on your home
·       Sell the property
·       Obtain a mortgage on your property
·       Obtain a mortgage or other properties in your name

To protect yourself from this fraud, you could take out Title Insurance. In my community, I can buy title insurance for a $500,000 home, for around $300 payable only once with no deductibles and no additional annual fees, check this out in your community as each area is different.

Frauds used against seniors 1

There is a lot of information about frauds and scams and how to protect yourself. What I found is that there is not a great deal of information about the frauds and scams that target seniors. So, as I was working on creating a workshop on this topic for seniors, I thought I would add the information to the blog. The more you know about frauds and scams, the less chance you have of becoming a victim. Over the next few posts, I will highlight the top 10, (in my opinion) frauds against seniors and how to protect yourself from falling victim to the fraud.

There are many reasons why seniors are vulnerable to fraudsters and scam artists. Here are a few:
·       As a group, we are too trusting; too polite as we were raised in a culture that valued these attributes and so we believe in the best of people.
·       Many seniors are isolated and look forward to any type of interaction with others, so when we start to get phone calls and letters, we welcome them. But after a while, we become worn down by calls and letters so we give the callers and letter writers what they want.
·       Many seniors do not have the experience to be aware that they are a victim of a fraud or a scam.

Fraudsters are very, very convincing; cheating people is their profession and they are well-trained. What follows are the frauds and scams used almost exclusively against seniors. 
The number one fraud is a telephone fraud called, The Grandparent Scam. This fraud is a variation of a class of frauds called Telephone and Email Scams.
What happens is a senior receives a telephone call, and the voice is garbled or hard to hear. The caller identifies themselves as a grandchild or a nephew or niece and talks about the bad connection and then says something along the following lines:
 “Hi, this is your favourite grand(son)(daughter) or nephew/niece.  I need you to send me money (for a flight ticket, rent or bail) but please don’t tell mom.  She’ll be so disappointed in me.”

If you receive a phone call with any request to wire or send money it should immediately raise a red flag, so hang up and report the fraud to the police.

There is a variation of this phone scam called the Bogus bank inspector. The senior is asked to withdraw a large amount of cash from your account to use as evidence. The senior is told not to tell the staff why they are withdrawing money. They are asked to meet the “investigator” at a pre-determined destination where the money is handed over for investigation.

Once the money changes hands, the senior is instructed to return home and wait for a phone call confirming that the money has been re-deposited . . . no call ever comes and they never see their cash again.

Seniors can take steps to protect themselves from this fraud.  My rule is simple, if you have caller ID and do not recognize the number, let it go to voicemail. If you make a mistake and answer the phone, politely say, “I am not interested!” and hang up.

Never give personal information over the phone. Take the time to register on a “Do not call” list.