Watch Out for these Online Scams Targeting Elders

According to the Federal Trade Commission, consumers lost more than $10 billion to fraud in 2023. Worse, elders are particularly vulnerable, especially to online scams. The FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center announced that Americans over the age of 60 were defrauded of approximately $3.4 billion in 2023, up 11% from 2022.
 
It is incredible how low scammers will stoop. I recently read an article about a Facebook scam in the UK where thieves preyed on bereaved people by using stolen images and fake funeral live stream links to steal money and/or credit card information.
 
While there is a seemingly endless array of online scams targeting elders, the National Council on Aging cites the following four as the most common:
 
Imposter Scams
These involve scammers posing as “authority figures,” such as bank or government representatives, utility companies, the IRS, the Social Security Administration, etc. You may be threatened with loss of services, fines, suspended accounts, criminal charges, or other negative consequences if you don’t follow the fraudster’s instructions on how to resolve the matter.
 
Scammers may even pretend to be someone you know personally, a close friend or grandchild perhaps, who claims to be in serious trouble and needs emergency financial help. You’ll be instructed to reveal sensitive personal information or send money through a digital payment platform, by wire, or via check to provide your loved one with the needed funds.
 
Tech Support Scams
These typically involve unsolicited offers, via email, text, a “pop-up,” or even the telephone, to repair a “problem” with your computer or software. They usually come from someone pretending to be a representative of a legitimate company, like Apple or Microsoft. The company’s “representative” requests remote access to your system, which allows them to steal personal information or install malware. In other cases, the thieves pretend to repair the technical issues and then demand payment. Refusal could lead to other “technical problems.”
 
Online Shopping Scams
These can target both buyers and sellers on sites like Amazon, eBay, Facebook Marketplace, and Craigslist. Buyers might pay for something they never receive or something that is not what they ordered. The seller may then deny a refund because the buyer used an “unauthorized” payment type or for some other bogus reason. Sellers, on the other hand, may be contacted and asked to pay a fraudulent “business account upgrade” fee. Another tactic targeting sellers involves a buyer paying more than the expected price, asking for a refund of the difference, and then canceling the original payment. The victim, of course, loses the amount he or she refunded.
 
Fake Check Scams
These involve scammers giving someone a fraudulent check to deposit and then asking the recipient to send money back for any number of reasons. Here’s an example:
 
Let’s say a person responds to an online ad for a remote job and is “hired.” The “employer” then sends a check and tells the “new hire” to send part of the money back through a payment app, or to purchase gift cards and send the “boss” the PIN numbers. If a payment is transferred through a payment app, it often cannot be refunded. As for the gift cards, the scammer redeems them immediately and leaves the victim with nothing.
 
There are many other online scams that utilize fake checks. They are so effective because modern printing technology allows for the creation of checks that can be indistinguishable from the real thing, even to bank employees. Fake checks can also take the form of real checks written on bank accounts belonging to people whose identities the scammer has stolen. It may take weeks for a bank to determine that a check is fraudulent, leaving plenty of time for scammers to collect their money and vanish.
 
Vigilance and awareness about the prevalence of online scams can help protect you from being victimized. You can learn more about such scams here.
 
Until next time, take care…