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There are a plethora of elder abuse scams out there, and one recently discovered by AARP was first initiated when a woman joined an online dating site. After some weeks of chatting, he touted his success at day-trading and convinced her to invest $70,000 in a legitimate crypto exchange. He buttered her up and eventually talked her into transferring that cryptocurrency to his “investment platform.â€Â You can guess the rest. Her online beau quickly disappeared along with her $70,000
There was a sad story in The New York Times recently about how some fundraisers—including many politicians—trick people (particularly senior citizens) into donating more than they want to. The story profiled Steve Vaughn, who started to go through his fathers bank statement after he died and was shocked to see 400 donations totaling more than $11K over just a four month period. There were donations to Donald J. Trump, Mitch McConnell, Tim Scott, Steve Scalise and many others. There were notes with the bank statements showing the 90-year old had repeatedly try to dispute the charges with his credit card company—all to no avail. Here is how the scam works. Fundraisers will call you and ask you for a donation and once you agree, they will enter them into the system as a recurring payment. Instead of taking a fixed amount, say $100, out of your account, they will take out $100 every month or sometimes every week. They are hoping people aren’t diligent about going over their bank statements, so pay attention! Many of them are targeting high-income areas of Monterey County like Carmel, Pacific Grove & Pebble Beach.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/us/politics/recurring-donations-seniors.html
There was a sad story in The New York Times recently about how some fundraisers—including many politicians—trick people (particularly senior citizens) into donating more than they want to. The story profiled Steve Vaughn, who started to go through his fathers bank statement after he died and was shocked to see 400 donations totaling more than $11K over just a four month period. There were donations to Donald J. Trump, Mitch McConnell, Tim Scott, Steve Scalise and many others.  There were notes with the bank statements showing the 90-year old had repeatedly try to dispute the charges with his credit card company—all to no avail. Here is how the scam works. Fundraisers will call you and ask you for a donation and once you agree, they will enter them into the system as a recurring payment. Instead of taking a fixed amount, say $100, out of your account, they will take out $100 every month or sometimes every week. They are hoping people aren’t diligent about going over their bank statements, so pay attention! Many of them are targeting high-income areas of Monterey County like Carmel, Pacific Grove & Pebble Beach.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/26/us/politics/recurring-donations-seniors.html
Although anyone can be a victim of the many scams that criminals are carrying out now, data from the Federal Trade Commission shows that consumers age 80 and older are far more likely to be scammed by phone and lose the most money, a median of $1,250. “Even if you do everything perfectly, you can still be susceptible to fraud,†Shameka Walker, a fraud and identity theft program manager at the FTC, told Kiplinger’s Retirement Report. Most scammers are hacking in to find your email address and hawking you products that you may have been searching for. Other popular scams are selling fake COVID-19 vaccines and PPE equipment to protect against the virus.
Please join Lory Carriedo, Julia Cruz-Moreno and Maria Quiroz on the second Monday every month from 5:30 to 7:30 for a caregiver support group sponsored by Natividad Medical Center. It can be lonely and depressing during the COVID-19 lockdown so all are encouraged to join in. Call 1-800-624-8304 for more details.