Author Ryan M. Chippendale has been in public safety/service for over two decades. He has held the roles of Police Officer, Firefighter, EMT, CPR Instructor, NRA Instructor, Glock Armorer, and Notary Public, among others. He is the proud father of three girls (12, 10, 4) and has been married for thirteen years. He is the son of a senior mother who keeps a running honey-do list for him, and he has expertise with firearms, electronics and computer systems. He is an ordained minister, is fluent in sarcasm and has been known to be found at a karaoke bar once or twice in his life. This is the second of a series of three blog posts.
If you’re just joining us then you missed the first article where I briefly discussed senior scam phone calls. The takeaway from that was if any stranger calls you, filter it though a skeptical lens.
There is one small caveat though… what if the phone call is from someone who claims to be NOT a stranger? “Hi Grandma, I got arrested in Mexico and the only way they’ll let me out is if you go by a Walmart gift card and send it to me.” First, you know from the first article that no government agency known to me will accept a gift card but what about your poor grandson? Are you the heartless person to leave him sitting in a Mexican prison?!? Take that drop of cynicism and apply it to this scenario… ask a challenge question.
What is something super obvious that your grandson would know? It doesn’t have to be tricky like asking the color of the sweater you wore at Christmas, more like the name of the street you live on. Or his mother’s first name. The scammer will just hang up, or if you’re lucky, they’ll spew some curse words at you before hanging up. Believe it or not, a lot of people are taken by this method.
Phone calls are the Mecca of scammers because it removes the ability of the victim to get a feel for what’s real and what isn’t. With technology these days, they are even able to remove accents from their voices. You might be more comfortable speaking with someone who has a southern drawl than a foreigner. If you’re on the phone, listen for things that sound culturally improper… those are harder to fake.
Another example of a common telephone scam relies less on sympathy and more on fear. You receive a call from someone who tells you that you’re a victim (they hope) of a fraud. “Hello, this is Bank of America and we’ve detected some fraudulent activity on your account. Before we can continue, we need you to verify your social security number?” How responsible and thorough of Bank of America, right? The problem is that it isn’t actually Bank of America calling… do you even have a Bank of America account? What if there actually is some kind of fraud happening and the person calling is legitimate? No big deal… ask for a reference number or the like. Hang up and call the phone number on the back of your credit card. I don’t even trust the Google searches in a situation like that. Pull out your paper statement or the physical credit card to get the phone number. Always be wary of someone who calls you and asks you for information. Always be suspicious of someone who calls you and wants to pressure you into doing anything as if time is a factor.
Along the lines of fear, your power is about to be shut off. It’s not, but imagine I made the scenario real enough and you believed your power was about to be shut off? It’s 30 degrees out, you have electric heat, you have an electric stove, your family is about to sit in the dark and eat uncooked food! As a scammer I’m going to slap you with whatever I can make you afraid of. But don’t worry… we can clear this outstanding bill up with a quick and easy trip to Wallgreens for a gift card to satisfy the debt. Ding ding ding… red flag! Gift card for anything = scam. Often criminals will pretend to be some type of utility company and call about an outstanding bill and threaten suspension of services if payment is not immediately made. Same as the Bank of America story… Hang up, pull out the bill and call them yourself. Maybe there is actually a delinquency, butseek it out yourself. Don’t trust a stranger who called you.
Trust but verify!