My mom calls me this morning. Says this guy she can't understand keeps calling her. Something about her computer and maintenance. She wasn't sure what to do. oh sigh........ she called me from her cell, and her landline rang again and it was him. Whatever he was saying (I couldn't hear him) she just kept trying to tell him no and that she couldn't understand him. Finally, she got back on to me (but was still on the phone with him) and I said just hang up!! You don't need to talk to him. A minute later her phone rang again. I said do not answer it! He's just trying to scam you. She has a Norton antivirus on her computer that she pays for, and I think she at first, when talking to him, thought maybe it had something to do with that and was telling him she paid $99 for that already. Whatever he was doing, he was trying to get $299 out of her or something. She said she did not give him any credit card or bank info at all.
Then I tried to ask her if she has caller ID on her phone. She doesn't know. I'm like, you know how there is a display on your cell phone that tells you the name and number of who is calling? do you have that on your landline/home phone? she still doesn't know. I said well, if you do and don't recognize a number/name calling you just do not answer it. If it's someone legitimate, then they can leave you a message and you can return the call.
One of these days she is going to get scammed out of money, I just know it. At least she called me about/during it, so I could help her. But, it's going to probably be kind of like those AOL fake emails. I kept telling her and telling her do not reply to them, and yet every time she would.
She has mentioned a few times recently that she's going to start thinking about moving into a retirement place. Somewhere that as she gets worse, also has assisted living help, when she gets to that point. It's sounding like a good idea to me. She likes to be around people and do stuff, so she'd probably like living someplace like that.
Then as I was messaging DD about it, I remembered I have her Comcast log in info. I'll bet I can sign in and see her phone records and see this number that called her this morning. Sure enough. It appears they called and left a voicemail with a number to call. So, she calls.....(WHY?!!!), so of course they think they have her hook, line and sinker. It shows she called them for about 2 minutes and then called again and was on phone with them for 3 minutes. Then they called back from a different number. Then again (that was when I was on the phone with her and told her not to answer it). I was able to put a block on those 2 numbers, which may help a bit, but they just call from different numbers. At least it doesn't show they have tried to call back since I talked to her. I looked up the first number they called her from. Others have reported it as scam...pretending to be from Microsoft and wanting $299.
My sister and I were concerned about our mom being scammed too. We told her that my sister can get a better interest rate due to being in the banking business(which is true) and she agreed to give all her money to my sister who keeps her money in a separate account. SIS pays all her bills and takes care of all financial issues for her and reports about her accounts every month. Mom does not even go to the ATM to get cash. I doubt if she knows how to do it. We bring her the cash when she needs it.
ReplyDeletethat's great you can do that. That's how my boss did it with her mom. My mom has too much money and that wouldn't work with her. Most of her money is in an investment firm who manages it for her. She takes out what she needs each year. Some goes in her savings and some in checking, plus she gets her ss check monthly that goes into her checking. Next time I go visit, I'm going to update my notebook with her again, and offer that whenever she feels ready to not do her bills anymore, I can take care of it and pay her bills online for her. That's what my boss did for her mom who lived in another state.
DeleteOur phone is Comcast they have a program that will block call with no name after the second ring. That may help keep her off of scam calls. Check to see if it is available on her landline
ReplyDeletethanks, I will check into that.
DeleteDefinitely a good thing you are able to check on your Mom's emails and phone calls, etc. One of my aunts got scammed, recently, and one of my elderly neighbors got scammed on several occasions! It's getting to a point where one is afraid to even answer the phone, these days!
ReplyDeleteI know it's so bad with the calls. We still have a landline and don't seem to get calls on this #, but when we lived in her area, it was constant. I'm trying to explain to her to just not answer it, but then it doesn't help if they leave a message and she actually calls them back! EEK!
DeleteI think an assisted living would be ideal, especially with her being the one thinking about it! Although my dad was already in "the system", getting him to be willing to move from his condo to actual assisted living was a challenge. His dementia is now so bad that he is on a locked memory care unit. I have peace of mind knowing he is being well taken care of.
ReplyDeleteyes, I'm sure the farther along they get the harder it is. My grandma lived on her own until she was like 90. She just did not want to live in assisted living, period.
DeleteThese scams on seniors piss me off most of all. How would anyone feel if their mother or father were swindled? What gives them the indecency to even go that route? I hope the blocks work.
DeleteSAM - it is disgusting. When I looked up the ph# on google and saw all the scam reports on it, it seemed alot of the people reporting on it were seniors or disabled. I wonder if they have a way to target them or it's just that they are home more to answer calls.
DeleteThese things were happening to my mom and I had to take away her phone and only allow certain #'s to call in.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing at some point it's going to come to that. I think when she moves into a retirement/assisted living place she'll probably just end up only having her cell phone. I don't think she gets many scam calls on her cell#, just her landline. But, yes, then could probably set up her cell phone to only get certain #'s to call in.
DeleteThis is just sickening to me that we continue to allow our elderly to be abused and scammed in this way! My 100 year old Granny is pretty sharp and she just hangs up. But I know many elderly get confused and so get swindled and it MAKES ME SICK. Granny has received like 6 calls last week from a guy trying to scam her and she gets really anxious and upset. I feel helpless because this is her landline and so we cannot block them.
ReplyDeleteit is sickening. Its like they seem to know to target the elderly.I was able to block this particular # from her landline through Comcast, but that's not going to help with other numbers calling her, unfortunately.
DeleteThe last time I got one of these calls (they show as a local call on my call display, even though they are calling from India or somewhere) I asked the lady if her mother knew she was scamming seniors for a living...she hung up and I haven't had another call for a couple of weeks now....
ReplyDelete