The scammers are prying on us old-timers: This is my friendly reminder that not everybody’s playing nice.
The phone rang, caller ID was a local number, so I answered. It was Nancy, “Your car’s extended warranty came across my desk today. I noticed your extended warranty has expired, press 2 to connect.”
Do not press 2. Hang up.
That was easy. Am I the only one about to lose my car’s extended warranty? My Toyota has 172,000 miles on it, and no extended warranty would cover my car.
Scams are a dishonest scheme to swindle us out of our hard earn money.
I like what United States Congressmen Jeff Van Drew from New Jersey said about these unwanted robocalls. “Robocall scams not only inconvenience us at the dinner table. But they prey on the vulnerable, including seniors, and it’s despicable.”
A Robocall is a call pre-recorded to a phone robot to get you to hit a certain number on your phone and then the scam begins.
It’s easy to get scammed and challenging to get your life’s savings back.
Here’s one of many regretful stories of a grandmother losing all her savings. But it was avoidable. Her story will make you cry. It began when Barbara answered the phone since the caller ID said, ‘Federal Reserve.’ Read what happened here.
Scammers focus on us, retirees. Why?
These dishonest scammers hit on us seniors because they think our cognitive skills have declined, to the point we’ll send our money to them without thinking. But that is not you, nor is it me. Secondly, the scammers surmise we retirees have lots of savings they can take from us. They’re not getting my money and hopefully not your money either.
We retirees are not the fools the scammers think we are! Since we live out in the country and are not living in a big city, we think we’re exempt from scams, think again. This is how Emily Thornberry, a member of the British Parliament puts it; “A scam is a scam. Fraud is a fraud. Different rules don’t apply in the City than they do for you and me.”
As retirees, one of our goals is to keep our retirement money fund safe. If we lose the money, we no longer have the time to rebuild our retirement savings. So, be wary of people you don’t know offering to help you grow your assets.
Here’s a primer to keep us on our toes.
The big one, the Centre Link scam
I regret to say I almost got sucked into a Centre Link scam. The caller ID read, Centre Link. So, why would I not want to know what they wanted to discuss with me? I answered. The man said my account was hacked and told me Centre Link would stop my monthly checks.
He said, he could help me, “All I need is some information from you to correct this. First, confirm your Pension Card number with me.” I started with my first PC number. Then every one of my brain’s synapses started sounding alarm bells. Bingo. If this man is working in the office of Centre Link, he already had my Pension number. I hung up, and I didn’t lose any money. Whew, a close one for me indeed.
The Centre Link scam is an easy one to avoid. Hang up before they suck you in since Centre Link never call you and ask for your Pension number.
Another call I get on my cell phone is problematic
Besides, it is laughable. You have a carrier for your cell phone to receive and make calls, and I have Verizon. So, I get this call from Verizon, but it’s not Verizon. The man says, “we have disconnected your number for unpaid charges.” I didn’t need help on this scam since he called me on Verizon. Bingo. I hung up.
Watch out for the Gift Card scam
Here’s another scam prevalent during the holiday season. It is the ‘gift card’ scam. Remember this. Gift cards are for gift-giving, and they are not for paying bills. When a person tells you on the phone to go to a store and buy Gift Cards to pay them, hang up. This year alone, Forty thousand people have spent $148 million to gift card scammers. Don’t you be one of them?
Be aware of the knock, knock scammers
This scam is not by phone, and it’s a knock on your door. It goes like this; “We’re in the area doing repair work up the street from you. I’d like to do an evaluation on your home to see needed improvements. When I’m finish, if you sign up today, since we’re in the area you’ll get our deep discount.” It’s the home improvement scam. Say thank you, and shut the door. There, that was easy.
My easy rule to stop from being scammed and losing my money
The safe way is to just hang up the phone, or close the door.
I’m sure most of you are aware of these scams. There are many more scams. But reminders serve us well to keep our resources safe from fraud.
It’s good for us to know we are the ones in charge of our phones and the front door. We don’t have to be nasty, but respectfully say I’m not interested, then hang the phone up. When it’s the knock, knock scam, say thanks, but I’m not interested and quietly close the door. You’ll be glad you did.
Now there, that was easy, wasn’t it? Besides, you kept all your money.
