<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve worked in the tech world for a long time. Even while teaching high school Latin and English, I freelanced on the side\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and I fell into the tech industry thanks to an editor friend who was desperate for a writer who could follow a brief. My favorite sub-sectors in technology include the Internet of Things (IoT), EdTech (educational technology), semiconductors, artificial intelligence\/machine learning, and cybersecurity. Once I transitioned to writing and UX design full-time, many of my clients fell in the SaaS (software as a service) space. \u00a0I\u2019ve branched out from tech into other industries over the past 13 years, but I\u2019ve learned a ton about the dark web, fraud, and the ever-increasingly sophisticated attacks that cybercriminals launch on unsuspecting businesses and individuals. \u00a0Unfortunately, older adults (55+) have become an increasingly popular target. According to the National Council on Aging (NCOA), almost 75% of older adults have been scammed \u2014\u00a0or know a victim. In 2024, older U.S. adults lost over $2 billion to scams.<\/p>\n
In April of this year, my 85-year-old mom was one of those adults. And the most infuriating and frustrating thing? I\u2019ve been training her for years on what to watch for. She knows not to give out any personal information over the phone or to open suspicious emails or texts. If she gets a legitimate-looking email with an attachment she doesn\u2019t recognize, she saves it in a folder for me to check out later. Those \u201cYou owe $54 to the PA Turnpike commission\u201d texts? Deleted and blocked as spam.<\/p>\n
She uses ScamAdvisor and TrustPilot to read reviews and confirm a website\u2019s validity if it\u2019s a brand she\u2019s never heard of before. And honestly, she\u2019s better at spotting AI-generated images than I am. It never occurred to me to tell her that it’s nearly impossible to hack a landline or a smartphone with up-to-date software.<\/p>\n
Read:<\/strong>How to avoid travels scams: A guide for older adults<\/p>\n A few weeks ago, Mom clicked on a National Geographic<\/em> article. Immediately, her screen froze, and a \u201cMicrosoft\u201d alert popped up claiming her computer was infected. She followed the steps I\u2019d given her to unfreeze the browser (Ctrl+Shift+Esc), but it didn\u2019t work. Next, she tried Ctrl+Alt+Del. No luck. \u00a0She shut the computer down and waited about 30 minutes. The message was still there with a 1-800 number to call. Going to pause to give Mom a shout-out because she did exactly what I told her to do if something weird happens. She checked the phone number on her cellphone (TrueCaller). The site confirmed the number as legit.<\/p>\n So she called.\u00a0 Spoiler alert:<\/strong> It was not a legit number.<\/p>\n Related: Watch for tax scams targeting Gen X and Boomers<\/strong><\/p>\n Mom connected with a woman, \u201cSophie,\u201d who said she worked at Microsoft and could help diagnose the problem. Now, interestingly, Sophie did not ask Mom to download anything on the computer. She walked Mom through Ctrl+Shift+Esc to open the Task Manager, navigate to Chrome, and end the task. The computer \u2014\u00a0as far as Mom was concerned \u2014\u00a0was working fine.<\/p>\n But then the plot thickened. Sophie asked Mom where she banked, and Mom told her. At that point, she didn\u2019t give any information besides the bank\u2019s name. Sophie said she wanted to check something and connected Mom to her \u201csupervisor,\u201d while she conducted some investigation. While Mom waited, she spoke with the supervisor, who confirmed his and Sophie\u2019s identities and provided their contact info, direct lines, email addresses, and employee numbers. He even texted pictures of their ID badges. Sophie returned to the line and said that my mom\u2019s phone lines (both landline and cell) had been hacked, and that the hackers had gotten her banking information and withdrawn $20,000 from her account. By now, Mom was understandably worried \u2014 even more so because she believed Sophie and was afraid to call me for fear of \u201cinfecting\u201d my cell phone. Sophie\u2019s \u201cMicrosoft supervisor\u201d offered to connect Mom to the fraud department at her bank.<\/p>\n An aside: An official Microsoft would never do this because they don\u2019t have direct access to any bank\u2019s fraud department.<\/p>\n Mom connected to Anna, a \u201cbank employee\u201d working in the fraud department. Anna told Mom that cybercriminals had withdrawn $20,000 from her checking account at 4:37 a.m. and used it to buy child pornography. She said she\u2019d traced this withdrawal to an account in Shanghai.<\/p>\n Mom was, understandably, upset and beginning to panic by now. She is, however, a cool cucumber under pressure, so she compartmentalized and \u2014\u00a0because she\u2019s also a rules follower\u00a0\u2014\u00a0did everything Anna and Sophie (who got back into contact as well) asked.<\/p>\n Note:<\/strong> There is no such thing as a federal ATM, but Mom didn\u2019t know that because she only uses the ATM at the local bank or goes inside.<\/p>\n Note<\/strong>: The \u201cATM\u201d was actually a cryptocurrency machine.<\/p>\n About 4:30, after the machine had jammed, she borrowed the vape store owner\u2019s phone to call me because she was worried that her cell phone was still compromised. I didn\u2019t recognize the number, so I let it go to voicemail. But when I heard her message, \u201cJodes, there\u2019s an emergency. Dad and I are on our way home, but get to the house as fast as you can,\u201d I got really worried.<\/p>\n Mom recounted her afternoon\u2019s activities to me, reassuring me that Anna had told her the money would be back in her account within a day or two. In fact, she was still talking to Anna when I arrived. I also got on the phone to talk to Anna, who told me that her department handles fraud cases like this all the time, and I wasn\u2019t to worry.<\/p>\n Spoiler alert: <\/strong>I was very<\/em> worried.<\/p>\n Mom ended the call, and I walked her through each step of the day, starting from the first message appearing on her computer screen. I saw red flags everywhere, but I waited until she finished her story to share my concerns\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and then, after breaking the news as gently as I could that she had been scammed, I insisted we go to the police to make a report.<\/p>\n By now, it was about 6:30, and I figured the money was long gone. I drove a very chagrined and embarrassed mom to the police station, where we talked to the officer on duty. He had some choice words for the cybercriminals and confirmed my suspicion that she had lost the amount she\u2019d withdrawn, minus the money the machine didn\u2019t take after it jammed. Oh, and that initial $20,000? It was never withdrawn in the first place. The scammers pulled a random number out of the air to get her to check the balance, telling her that even a smaller amount would still work for the chargeback effort. The only money they actually got was what she deposited in the bitcoin machine.<\/p>\n We also spoke to a department detective the next day, and he shared the report with the local FBI office. Will they catch these criminals? Probably not. But if Mom\u2019s info helps to build a bigger case when they are caught someday, that\u2019s something at least.<\/p>\n Before I left for home that night, I took steps to protect Mom and Dad\u2019s identities, since Mom said she\u2019d given them all of her information. I:<\/p>\n The next day, Mom and I went to the bank. Shout-out to the wonderful, caring staff at the bank where my parents have done their business for 56 years. They suspected something was up \u2014\u00a0they\u2019re trained to spot fraud \u2014 but because Mom didn\u2019t ask for help or offer any info when asked, their hands were tied. The bank manager even called her shortly after she withdrew the cash to ask if everything was okay, but because Mom was on her phone with the scammers, she missed the call. And because Mom willingly withdrew the money, the actual fraud department would not authorize any reimbursement of those stolen funds.<\/p>\n We had to:<\/p>\n And then the phone calls. We called multiple businesses to update banking information. I took my parents to the Social Security office because the agency requires you to update your banking information in person. \u00a0I also took their computer to the Geek Squad guys. The tech who ran the scans and installed a new ad pop-up extension (AdGuard AdBlocker) was irate (he has a 90-year-old grandmother) and did everything for free, bless him.<\/p>\n The main factor convincing Mom of this scam\u2019s legitimacy? The number of people involved. It wasn\u2019t just one person but a team working in concert. She, of the usually suspicious mind, said everyone was incredibly solicitous, helpful, and patient. (Then again, if you\u2019re working to scam someone out of money for a hefty payday, investing a few hours of your time for many thousands of dollars \u2014\u00a0and being nice about it \u2014 is probably not a heavy lift.)<\/p>\n Mom and Dad lost a chunk of money, but fortunately, they have a healthy rainy-day investment account. A quick call to their Primerica rep, and money to cover the bills arrived in the new checking account in under 48 hours. Other seniors who\u2019ve been scammed aren\u2019t so lucky.<\/p>\n The TL;DR? Tell your older loved ones to be suspicious of everything if they\u2019re active online \u2014\u00a0either on their computers or smartphones. They should never, ever give out personal information over the phone. While it wasn\u2019t part of this <\/em>scam, they should never allow an external entity to take over their computer. \u00a0And the actual Microsoft company will never, ever send a pop-up on your computer screen saying it\u2019s been hacked or infected.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sorry the bank\u2019s failsafes didn\u2019t work. And yup, I\u2019ve given the manager my cell phone number just in case<\/em>, although I\u2019m pretty sure this won\u2019t happen to my parents again.<\/p>\n I hope it doesn\u2019t happen to yours.<\/p>\n This personal finance story produced for TheStreet by Nifty 50+<\/p>\n #Beware #scam #targeting #seniors #bank #accounts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I\u2019ve worked in the tech world for a long time. Even while teaching high school Latin and English, I freelanced on the side\u00a0\u2014\u00a0and I fell into the tech industry thanks… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[246],"tags":[2822,200,6701,4731,6702,3408],"class_list":["post-4333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-popular","tag-accounts","tag-bank","tag-beware","tag-scam","tag-seniors","tag-targeting"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fintechpulse8.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The set-up<\/strong><\/h2>\n
A tangled web of lies<\/strong><\/h2>\n
The web tightened<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
\n
The aftermath<\/strong><\/h2>\n
Cleaning up the colossal mess<\/strong><\/h2>\n
\n
\n
The moral of the story<\/strong><\/h2>\n