Help Protect Mom & Dad / Grandma And Grandpa from fraud
Sometimes all it takes to prevent fraud, is knowing when it is happening.
Source: consumerreports.org
Author: Tobie Stanger
Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
One way that scammers often try to convince consumers to send them money is to threaten them with fines and penalties if they don’t do as they’re told. That’s exactly what happened to Anna Guillory Yates of Los Angeles. The 70-year-old resident received a voice message from someone claiming to be from the IRS. The caller threatened to confiscate her property if she didn’t pay a tax bill right away.
This time, the scammer was messing with the wrong person. Yates, a member of the Stop Senior Scams Acting Program, was well versed in how the notorious “IRS scam” works. That’s because the program puts together a show dramatizing dozens of ruses and frauds used against seniors. It then takes the show on the road to senior centers and other venues around the Los Angeles area.
“I just laughed because We do that skit,” Yates recalls. “I thought to myself, ‘You do not have me on this one!'”
Senior-to-Senior Education
I was thinking of how Yate’s know-how helped her when I testified on preventing senior scams before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade on October 23. Getting the word out among seniors about how scams work is key to preventing them from being successful.
But becoming an expert in elder fraud isn’t all that easy because many seniors are reluctant to speak about what they’ve been through. My suggestion: Why not fund senior-to-senior educational groups like the Stop Senior Scams Acting Program all over the country?
