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Fraud alert

Reality TVClubHouse Discussions: General Discussions ARCHIVES: January 2010 ~ April 2010 - 2: Fraud alert users admin

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Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 10:37 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
My mother in law just got scammed out of $4,000 by someone pretending to be my son calling her and saying he was stranded in Canada and needed money wired to him.
been doing some research and evidently the 'grandparent scam' has been going on for well over a year, even longer. the canadian MP's have even set up a special site for it.

http://seniorjournal.com/NEWS/Alerts/2009/20090319-SenCitLosingThousands.htm

Ophiliasgrandma
Member

09-04-2001

Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 12:46 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Ophiliasgrandma a private message Print Post    
They featured it on the news here just last week.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 1:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
And for non-grandparents, there is the traveler mugged of his wallet and stranded in London. Cousin Chairfree got one of those e-mails while we were visiting with him in Australia. He and the wife are both former law enforcement, and I was there earnestly telling them it is a scam, and they were wondering if they should send the money. Sheesh.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Sunday, August 23, 2009 - 1:59 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
and of course now she is embarrassed and making it hard for us to get info so we can report it to the AG.
i hate to say it, but what's really bizarre is that they are not close. i am not sure he would even have her phone number.

Twiggyish
Member

08-14-2000

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 7:57 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Twiggyish a private message Print Post    
This scam has been happening a lot. We've had a lot of warnings about it. My area has a lot of seniors.

Karuuna
Board Administrator

08-31-2000

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 8:06 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Karuuna a private message Print Post    
Aw, Annie, I'm so sorry this happened to her. Just sucks that there are such mean, greedy people out there.

Escapee
Member

06-15-2004

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 8:44 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Escapee a private message Print Post    
It's too bad she didnt' call you first to verify or ask if you even knew what was going on.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 10:24 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
I am sort of relieved to know this is a bigger scam. We are worried that somehow she was being personally targeted. It's so hard with her living 3 hours away and we really don't know her neighbors. I worry about her for various reasons.
Thanks Kar. I feel so badly for her. My fil had her convinced she was fairly incompetent and now that he's gone, this doesn't help. Escapee, the article said the scammer begs the grandparent to not tell their parent. I imagine she was so stunned that he called her and felt somewhat flattered that he thought she could help out.

Mameblanche
Member

08-24-2002

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 10:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Mameblanche a private message Print Post    
These scams are disgusting! Don't these scammers have families, parents, grandparents of their own? Geez. I hope there are criminal charges laid if/when these dreks are caught.

Beachcomber
Member

08-26-2003

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 1:58 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Beachcomber a private message Print Post    
They say that the scammers get info about relatives off of Facebooks and other sites. I guess it is good advice to make sure kids are not posting too many details about their grandparents on their pages.

Escapee
Member

06-15-2004

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 2:08 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Escapee a private message Print Post    
I know that you feel bad for your parents, but doesn't it miff you a little that they didn't call you about something that had to do with YOUR child?

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 2:38 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
I can feel fairly confident in saying that this scammer got nothing about his grandmother from my son's page! LOL
i know there is also a facebook scam. a friend of mine got one of those.
escapee, i am not made at her for being their to help him out, but am a little ticked that she never bothered to mention it.

Twiggyish
Member

08-14-2000

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 2:44 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Twiggyish a private message Print Post    
Please tell her that this happens all the time. It's a very sick scam and she was the victim. She's a loving grandma trying to help.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 3:00 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
bless her heart, she thought she had done a good thing. when she found out it wasn't our son, she got very embarrassed and sort of stopped giving info.

Karuuna
Board Administrator

08-31-2000

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 3:04 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Karuuna a private message Print Post    
I agree, Annie, I think she did try to do a very nice thing. How nice that she would have his back enough to give up that much money to help him in need!

I don't see any reason to berate her for that. It's too bad she's embarrassed tho. She needs to tell her story so they can catch this jerk.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 4:10 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
I most definitely don't want to beat her up! Now, in conversation with dh, i might, but it's more of a shaking your head kind of thing.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 4:43 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Oh! Hate to say this, but I just thought of something. It was always my experience that once the scammers got an elderly person to bite once, they kept going back until they got all the money that person had.

Now, it may not work that way with the grandchildren scam, but they might now try hitting her with lottery scams. In the lottery scam, she has won a very large prize and has to pay ever escalating sums of money for various reasons in order to claim her prize.

In my job in the late 1990's at least once a week I would have to deal with a victim, or usually the family of a victim, where the older person had been pretty much bled dry and often would not even admit how much money they had lost to scammers. It was very sad.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Monday, August 24, 2009 - 4:50 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
They did try to con her again. The 'grandson' called back and asked for more money. She told him he had to talk to his dad.
(and yet she still didn't call us!)
it's scary cause she is pretty well off. i will have my husband talk to her and warn her.

Beachcomber
Member

08-26-2003

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 8:35 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Beachcomber a private message Print Post    
That is so sad Tex. I am going to warn my parents just in case.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 8:52 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Excellent idea, Beach. Everybody here with teenaged or older kids, please warn the kids' grandparents about this scam, and to call YOU if they get such a call. Be sure to tell them the "grandchild" will try to swear them to secrecy.

Texannie
Member

07-16-2001

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 9:17 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Texannie a private message Print Post    
Most definitely, Beach!
i called my aunt and dad. both of whom laughed cause neither go by traditional grandma/grandpa names...said if anyone called them saying 'grandma/pa' they would know it was a fraud!

Seamonkey
Moderator

09-07-2000

Tuesday, August 25, 2009 - 11:13 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Seamonkey a private message Print Post    
Here in Fountain Valley the Fraud officer comes in from the PD and does a presentation at the senior center once in awhile. I went to one and while I was aware of many of the online scams and phone ones, they also had some disturbinb cases where older seniors are duped in dating scams. I noticed that many of those in the room seemed really unaware of this subject, so hopefully it really helped some of them.

Biscottiii
Member

05-29-2004

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 - 1:53 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Biscottiii a private message Print Post    
I posted this tonight in News & Views, granted many people don't go into that thread. But after reading (again) this thread is running with the same situation:
- - -
Oooh, this is some nasty stuff. One blogger that I read frequently (a very savvy person), recently had his email account hacked & password changed plus hitting up his many Posters. They show a Facebook example as the scene unfolds for someone. Just putting this here, as a word to the wise:

Facebook imposter scam a growing concern
Posted: Tuesday, October 6 2009 at 07:15 am CT by Bob Sullivan
http://redtape.msnbc.com/2009/10/on-the-web-its-not-always-easy-to-know-who-your-friends-are-mistakes-in-judgment-can-be-very-costly--internet-imposters.html

On the Web, it’s not always easy to know who your friends are. Mistakes in judgment can be very costly.

Internet imposters are perfecting the technique of impersonating friends on social networking sites like Facebook, with lucrative results. Victims are losing thousands of dollars. Emotional e-mail pleas sent by imposters, such as “I’m stuck in London and I’ve been robbed, help me,” have become so effective that the FBI last week issued a warning to consumers about social networking sites. <snipped>

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 - 12:02 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
Cousin Chairfree got one of these e-mails from the bonafide Hotmail account of one of his friends while we were visiting him in Australia. E-mail said the friend had been robbed in London and needed $2500 USD sent to London via Western Union. Cousin could not get hold of the friend, and even though cousin and wife are both former federal police as was the alleged strandee, they were thinking of sending the money. I was there screaming Nigerian scam in their ears. Sheesh.

I think the fact that the scammer wanted US dollars was what convinced them it was a scam. They are Australian, friend is in London. Why USD?

Wargod
Moderator

07-16-2001

Wednesday, October 07, 2009 - 12:05 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Wargod a private message Print Post    
I read that yesterday and maybe I (and my friends/family) are weird but the first thing I thought was that if someone was close enough to me to think to ask me for a large sum of money...they'd have told me they were going to London in the first place!

Biscottiii
Member

05-29-2004

Thursday, October 08, 2009 - 1:49 am   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Biscottiii a private message Print Post    
War said: "..if someone was close enough to me to think to ask me for a large sum of money...they'd have told me they were going to London in the first place!"

Amen, great comments War & Juju!

Last month our Newspaper gave an excellent, heartwarming article. This Lady has saved so many people clearing out their life savings - from her surprising job/position @ Walmart, what a STORY!:

This guardian angel flies by her gut
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2009803285_nicole04m.html
September 5, 2009

<snipped>
"You don't want to do this," she said.

Smith, 68, is a one-woman fraud alert. From her perch behind the customer-service desk, she can sense the evil of the outside world sending good people to the MoneyGram machine, which is used to wire money throughout the country and beyond.

They come with stories of desperate calls for immediate cash. Strange "friends" saying their children are in jail. The "children" themselves call, saying they've been in an accident. Or they're bail bondsmen. Law enforcement. Some are cheery women offering "free" trips to Disney World.

"None of it sounds good," Smith told me.

Fake-check scams, in which people paid with phony checks are instructed to send money back, led the Top 10 Scams of 2008 put out by the National Consumer League. (Average losses per victim were more than $3,000.

<snipped> Sometimes Smith has to be more forceful than she'd like. An older couple came in, saying their son had called from Canada, in some kind of trouble. He needed $4,000.

"You sure that's your son's voice?" Smith asked the mother. "Then you take my phone and call him. Don't do anything until you talk to your son."

They called their son. He was fine — not in Canada — and had plenty of cash.

Smith understands the panic and worry that drive people to drain their bank accounts and send cash into the ether. <snipped>
---
Like I said, this was a wonderful read!}

Sia
Member

03-10-2002

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 4:36 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Sia a private message Print Post    
I got an e-mail a few months ago from the acct of a woman who belongs to an organization of which I am a member. In the e-mail she stated she was stranded in England & needed money wired to her. I did not send money, but suspecting her e-mail acct had been hacked, I sent an e-mail to her telling her that someone was trying to scam ppl using her e-mail acct. I rec'd another e-mail from her acct assuring me that it was legit. Last I'd heard, the lady was not in good health. I'm certain she's not traveling overseas. I hate scammers.

Juju2bigdog
Member

10-27-2000

Wednesday, February 17, 2010 - 5:23 pm   Edit Post Move Post Delete Post View Post Send Juju2bigdog a private message Print Post    
That is the scam of the day going around right now, Sia. When we were visiting the relatives in Australia last year they got one of those very same e-mails from a friend whose e-mail had been hacked, just as we were all leaving to go on a little trip ourselves. I was appalled that they were even thinking of sending money, but it turns out cousin Chairfree was just tweaking the scammers while he had some of his police buddies in London checking out the money drop (Chairfree and I are members of the international Police association).