PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY

Spring scammers in full bloom

PERSONAL TECHNOLOGY

Trees and flowers aren’t the only things growing this spring. We’re seeing a huge increase in phone scams designed to separate seniors from their money.Gene Rubel To understand how scammers the Digital Device can reach seniors by phone, you Doctor, cures should understand a few things digital anxiety for about modern communications seniors and home/ technology. home-office users. Phony Phone CallsA graduate of Let’s start with your telephone. Harvard Business Whether you have a landline or School, “Doctor Gene” spent more cellular phone, it most likely has than 30 years in international caller ID – which is supposed to business. He can be reached at display the phone number of your generubel@gmail.com. caller and maybe even the name of the person or company calling. The operative word is “supposed.” What you see on your phone’s display is not necessarily the actual number or name of the caller.

In today’s telephone technology, scammers use computer technology to “spoof” a phone number or name that might be familiar to you. Two of the meanings of “spoof” are hoax and deceive, and an incoming call that shows an Atlanta area code actually may be coming from a phone anywhere in the world. The scammer merely attaches any phone number they want for the caller ID.

Those of us who grew up in a more trusting age might be tempted to politely answer the phone whenever it rings, but more and more, we’re ignoring calls when we don’t recognize a name or number. That’s a good policy to follow. If it’s a legitimate call, they’ll usually leave a voice message and a number that you can call back.

But sometimes, we pick up those calls because we may be expecting a call from, say, a healthcare provider to confirm an appointment. Or we may be expecting a call from a service provider, such as a plumber or electrician – or even an IT consultant to fix a computer problem.

Fertile Ground

That last category is actually fertile ground for many scammers. Many seniors have older computers that don’t perform all that well, and when scammers call you, they’re betting you have an older system. They’ll claim to be from Microsoft and say there’s a problem with your computer that they can fix to improve its performance. All you need to do is give them access to your computer, and they’ll control your computer.

Scammers also claim to be from Amazon or a bank and say they’ve discovered a problem with your account. If you don’t answer the call, they might even leave a phone number for you to call back. But in this case, it will be a fake phone number that goes outside the US – not connected to Amazon or any bank. Once you give the scammer the financial information requested, there’s a good chance your account will be emptied before you hang up the call.

Phone scammers may also claim to be from the IRS or a court jurisdiction. Don’t fall for it. The IRS and the courts use good old snail mail when they want to talk to you. If you do happen to pick up the phone and suspect a scam, our best advice is to hang up before they somehow cajole you into giving up any information they can use to get money from you.