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+--- Thread: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents (/showthread.php?tid=28327)
PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - timeconsumer - 12-17-2020
Y'all I know this is weird but I'm here with a public service announcement. We all know about spoofed calls and phishing emails and all that but there are millions of people a year who get scammed out of untold amounts of money around the world, and unfortunately this is usually the elderly. Do your grandma and grandpa a favor and educate them about the warning signs of some of the most common scams out there.
The tech support scam. This often happens when you type a web address for a big website slightly wrong and it redirects you to a page with a big warning. Your computer has been infected with hackers and viruses. They are going to steal your money. Call support at 1-800-SCORP-SUX now before they steal all your money and identities! These windows are often very difficult to close and have alarm sounds in the background. Tell your grandma if she sees this to call you, or restart her computer, just don't call the phone number.
The refund scam. These are getting more clever by the day. A new one is the Amazon refund scam. They will send out fake invoices for an expensive item like a $3000 big screen TV. There is a phone number to call for support. Grandma calls and says she didn't order the TV. Helpful agent agrees to process a refund. Helpful agent then tells grandma to download Teamviewer or Anydesk and log into her online banking. Helpful scammer agent blackens the screen and uses the "inspect element" feature of chrome to modify the HTML to make it look like they just added $10000 to her account. OH NOES! We refunded too much! You need to PayPal us $7000 back for the difference! Or gift cards! Or take a picture of a check! I know your grandma isn't stupid but they get smart people to fall for this all the time too.
And there are a ton more. Car warranty scams. IRS scams. Warn your family to look for these signs:
1) Cold calls. Tech support. Billing. IRS. Car warranty. You name it. You will never receive cold calls for these legitimately. Especially when you answer you hear nothing for a few seconds then the microphone kicks on and the person on the other end sounds like they are in a noisy room.
2) Remote access software. If they want you to install remote access software like Teamviewer or Anydesk they are not a legitimate service. Tell them to hang up and call a tech savvy family member if they are concerned about a security issue with their phone or computer, or take it to a local store.
3) Logins and passwords. Everybody knows support should never ask for a password, but they give it anyway. These guys are good at pretending like this is a normal thing when challenged about it. If it feels wrong, it probably is. Never give anyone your password to anything no matter how much they pretend like they need it to solve a problem.
4) Refunds. They don't need your bank info to refund you if they've already charged you. End of story. They don't need you to log in to your bank account to process a refund. If someone "refunds you too much", it's a scam, hang up and call your bank.
5) Call us at... The basic function of 90% of these scams is that they are trying to bait people into calling them. Don't.
Educate your old folks. Times are desperate around the world right now and desperate times make desperate people who will take advantage of others. Christmas is a great time for them to use a lot of these tactics and all new ones.
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - Opera_Phantom - 12-17-2020
The main thing i did with my parents (don't have grandparents anymore) is that they can call me anytime something unusual happens. One of the thing that you did not mention and at least here happens a lot is someone going to people, mainly old folks, telling them that their son/daughter "John/Mary" (getting their kids names is not hard at all, takes like 30 seconds on facebook or something) asked them for something like to change some bank notes because new ones came out, or their car keys because they need to take it to rotate the tyres, something like that. Crazy stuff, but a lot of people fall for it.
Main thing here: if anything strange happens or you are unsure of something, call me.
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - TeyonSchavari - 12-21-2020
(12-17-2020, 03:52 PM)timeconsumer Wrote: Call support at 1-800-SCORP-SUX now before they steal all your money and identities!
Just called the number, all I heard was "gibme yur monies ndidentyteis lmap"
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - 37thchamber - 12-22-2020
(12-17-2020, 05:17 PM)Opera_Phantom Wrote: Main thing here: if anything strange happens or you are unsure of something, call me.
Yeah, my mom doesn't even click ok on her anti-virus database update without checking with me sometimes. If she forgets what it is, she'll send me a screenshot in WhatsApp like "is this safe?"
These scams are getting more convincing for the less savvy users out there though, so it's definitely worth trying to set up some kind of checking/screening procedure for questionable stuff. Even if that procedure is just "call me if it looks odd"
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - infinitempg - 03-18-2021
Bumping because of this amazing video from Mark Rober
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrKW58MS12g
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - timeconsumer - 03-19-2021
(03-18-2021, 02:33 PM)infinitempg Wrote: Bumping because of this amazing video from Mark Rober
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VrKW58MS12g
Yes him and Jim Browning who he worked with are amazing. But Jim Browning is a legend in this scamming stuff.
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - shadyshoelace - 03-19-2021
(12-17-2020, 05:17 PM)Opera_Phantom Wrote: The main thing i did with my parents (don't have grandparents anymore) is that they can call me anytime something unusual happens. One of the thing that you did not mention and at least here happens a lot is someone going to people, mainly old folks, telling them that their son/daughter "John/Mary" (getting their kids names is not hard at all, takes like 30 seconds on facebook or something) asked them for something like to change some bank notes because new ones came out, or their car keys because they need to take it to rotate the tyres, something like that. Crazy stuff, but a lot of people fall for it.
Main thing here: if anything strange happens or you are unsure of something, call me.
This is great advice, and something we should all pay attention to and implement. I've instructed my parents that from now on, if anything out of the ordinary occurs, they should give Opera_Phantom a call.
RE: PSA: Take care of your Grandparents - Opera_Phantom - 03-20-2021
Yeah, you should call your parents @shadyshoelace, you're dropping the ball. They're very disappointed.
How the bed wetting stuff going? Better?