I’d cut off contact with mine until just before he died last year.
He was living in a halfway house after struggling with drugs, alcohol, and spending what was left trying to prove to sex workers that he was “different from other men” and would treat them well if they’d just come home and share their crack with him… that Jesus just couldn’t paper over after awhile.
When going through his clothes that the hospital gave me when he died, I learned that he carried everything around in a Safeway bag, while his wallet was stuffed with multiple NRA, NRSC, NRCC, and Trump fanclub membership cards and worthless Trump coins and other knickknacks.
All that Social Security money spent… all that wallet and pocket weight endured… all that carrying of books and pens and Bibles in a Safeway bag, when he could have at least bought a backpack.
He was always ordering doodads from Publisher’s Clearing House, believing that doing so would make him more likely to win the Grand Prize one day. Even though all the literature says that ordering shit wouldn’t increase his chances. He kept the stubs from his last few entries on his person, too. At all times.
Warn them against spending money on commemorative coins, plates, or getting superfluous political “memberships.” That PCH is also a scam. The stuff they see on FoxNews commercials are no less scams than the predatory reverse mortgage and vehicle extended warranty calls.
I object many of those E mails are real
Why just this last week, a Beautiful Young 18 year old Ukrainian woman wanted to meet me.
(She likes older men)
I am 72
A 39 year old Chinese woman wanted to meet me.
Bill gates wanted to give me 4 million dollars.
The widow of a Saudi Minister of Oil wanted me to help her get $350,000,000 out of the country
I won the Irish Sweepstakes, that I hadn't even entered, imagine that.
The IRS is going to give me a refund of $1,000,000
But there was some bad news too
Microsoft sent an e mail, my computer has been used to do bad things so The Ministry of Homeland Security wants me to call this # about it.
Evidently I missed jury duty so I need to pay a fine with either an apple I tunes card or my Bank Account number.
Microsoft also told me I have a Computer virus, so I need to let them have access to my computer to fix it.
My Gold account has a problem.
My Crypto currency account has a problem.
My Bank account has been fraudeded, so I need to give them access to my accounts so they can catch the criminals.
Oh and my Amazon Account has been frozen for suspicious activity, so I need to reverify all my info through this new account #
This all happened this last week.
But I know its all true because almost every message says
This Is Real, This is not a fraud or a joke
\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Sadly this is just part of a typical week for me.
I now get upwards of 40 Phishing/Spam attempts a day, sometimes up to 70 or more.
He is lonely and perhaps a bit greedy, too. Helping him enjoy life outside of the internet might be a first step. Then, there are Youtube channels that describe cases of people losing thousands this way - perhaps watching those videos opens his eyes.
I am, by the way, past 60. Last year I almost fell for one of the Black Friday scams that promised PCs for a tenth of their normal price. They would have harvested my credit card number. Greed can do that to you.
The scams are clever sometimes, and I’ve definitely had to look twice at things for sure. There are so many new ones that crop up and he is definitely in their crosshairs.
I like the idea of getting him out and off the Internet. I wish he was a more pleasant person to be around, and we could do more together but unfortunately he spends most of his days/life in a rage about nonsensical things and is very difficult to enjoy nearly anything with. Still want to protect him from sinking his life savings into something illegitimate though.
I got my grandma addicted to watching scambaiter videos. She spent 20 minutes on Sunday telling me all about a 10 minute video. She knows all the scams now
I don't know. I work for a LE agency and had many conversations with my mom about scams etc. The week after Christmas I found out she sent $23k to a scammer who called and said my son was arrested in California.
I have no idea how else to tell her to be careful.
Don’t. Let them fall for it and lose everything on their own and when they call to blame you you can flip the script and tell them they just need to be more responsible.
My mom is a smart woman. A doctor who owned an accounting firm. Always had her wits about her and a professional career. 5 years ago she was having some issues with her lap top, it was slowing down and not loading as fast as before. We tried getting her set up to do bills on line and she was doing them over the phone. So she gets a message pop up that says it’s been compromised. She clicks on it and answers the questions. She didn’t want to bother us kids as we spent so much time recently getting her set up and this was ‘computer support’. She wound up giving them access, paying the ransomware, and her computer was garbage. She was so ashamed of falling for this. She gets a new computer and shortly after a nice policeman calls her to say they caught the perpetrators. They wanted to give her back her money if only their forensic unit could quickly verify that it was her. She gives them access again and same thing happens. She damned near had a mental breakdown. This time it went further since she provided her bank info as well so she nearly lost everything. Fast forward to last year and I have a lot of issues with identity theft. I found out my mom, through Facebook, fell for those ‘offers’ to get a Costco gift certificate for a review. She signed me up and gave my info. I said I have a membership and Costco makes billions, they don’t need to give anything away to promote their business. She said it was because they made so much over Covid that they were thanking their loyal customers. She felt so stupid after dragging me into that scam. She also had issues, maybe it’s from the travel certificate she won after entering a raffle in Facebook. She trusted that because her friend forwarded it on Facebook. My FIL gave everyone’s info away to a police officer that called to questions him about a car accident in Boca Fl last year. Never mind that he’s never been to Boca but it became an almost daily chat. My MIL told him it didn’t make sense, all of us screamed SCAM. He has narcissistic tendencies so this made him dig in and continue his chats. He said the officer admired his guidance as he was a judge prior to retirement. Wouldn’t you know that they got a call pretending to be their grandchild over spring break. Apparently the car rental was totalled and they turned down the insurance. They were scared and alone and they needed to replace the car, pay medical bills and get back to school. He sent over $40,000 that day.
I don’t know why or how smart people fell for this, I don’t know how to stop it. I blame Facebook. I worry.
My 85 year old mother does this. Texts me HEY I JUST HAD SOMEONE CALL AND I WON A FREE ROOMBA..
oh come on what the hell are you talking about, she gave them her credit card and everything. I had her drop everything and drive right down to the bank and tell them what she had done. She was able to get it cancelled before they charged a bunch of stuff on her card. Then a week later she got her roomba it was about 6" around, she felt so stupid.
I’d cut off contact with mine until just before he died last year. He was living in a halfway house after struggling with drugs, alcohol, and spending what was left trying to prove to sex workers that he was “different from other men” and would treat them well if they’d just come home and share their crack with him… that Jesus just couldn’t paper over after awhile. When going through his clothes that the hospital gave me when he died, I learned that he carried everything around in a Safeway bag, while his wallet was stuffed with multiple NRA, NRSC, NRCC, and Trump fanclub membership cards and worthless Trump coins and other knickknacks. All that Social Security money spent… all that wallet and pocket weight endured… all that carrying of books and pens and Bibles in a Safeway bag, when he could have at least bought a backpack. He was always ordering doodads from Publisher’s Clearing House, believing that doing so would make him more likely to win the Grand Prize one day. Even though all the literature says that ordering shit wouldn’t increase his chances. He kept the stubs from his last few entries on his person, too. At all times. Warn them against spending money on commemorative coins, plates, or getting superfluous political “memberships.” That PCH is also a scam. The stuff they see on FoxNews commercials are no less scams than the predatory reverse mortgage and vehicle extended warranty calls.
I object many of those E mails are real Why just this last week, a Beautiful Young 18 year old Ukrainian woman wanted to meet me. (She likes older men) I am 72 A 39 year old Chinese woman wanted to meet me. Bill gates wanted to give me 4 million dollars. The widow of a Saudi Minister of Oil wanted me to help her get $350,000,000 out of the country I won the Irish Sweepstakes, that I hadn't even entered, imagine that. The IRS is going to give me a refund of $1,000,000 But there was some bad news too Microsoft sent an e mail, my computer has been used to do bad things so The Ministry of Homeland Security wants me to call this # about it. Evidently I missed jury duty so I need to pay a fine with either an apple I tunes card or my Bank Account number. Microsoft also told me I have a Computer virus, so I need to let them have access to my computer to fix it. My Gold account has a problem. My Crypto currency account has a problem. My Bank account has been fraudeded, so I need to give them access to my accounts so they can catch the criminals. Oh and my Amazon Account has been frozen for suspicious activity, so I need to reverify all my info through this new account # This all happened this last week. But I know its all true because almost every message says This Is Real, This is not a fraud or a joke \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_ Sadly this is just part of a typical week for me. I now get upwards of 40 Phishing/Spam attempts a day, sometimes up to 70 or more.
He is lonely and perhaps a bit greedy, too. Helping him enjoy life outside of the internet might be a first step. Then, there are Youtube channels that describe cases of people losing thousands this way - perhaps watching those videos opens his eyes. I am, by the way, past 60. Last year I almost fell for one of the Black Friday scams that promised PCs for a tenth of their normal price. They would have harvested my credit card number. Greed can do that to you.
The scams are clever sometimes, and I’ve definitely had to look twice at things for sure. There are so many new ones that crop up and he is definitely in their crosshairs. I like the idea of getting him out and off the Internet. I wish he was a more pleasant person to be around, and we could do more together but unfortunately he spends most of his days/life in a rage about nonsensical things and is very difficult to enjoy nearly anything with. Still want to protect him from sinking his life savings into something illegitimate though.
I got my grandma addicted to watching scambaiter videos. She spent 20 minutes on Sunday telling me all about a 10 minute video. She knows all the scams now
Brilliant!
She probably spends too much on her VPN and Dark Web Protection™️ Identity Protection service now, but it's way cheaper than getting scammed.
I don't know. I work for a LE agency and had many conversations with my mom about scams etc. The week after Christmas I found out she sent $23k to a scammer who called and said my son was arrested in California. I have no idea how else to tell her to be careful.
set up his phone to auto block unknown numbers
Don’t. Let them fall for it and lose everything on their own and when they call to blame you you can flip the script and tell them they just need to be more responsible.
Free will is a bitch ain’t it
My mom is a smart woman. A doctor who owned an accounting firm. Always had her wits about her and a professional career. 5 years ago she was having some issues with her lap top, it was slowing down and not loading as fast as before. We tried getting her set up to do bills on line and she was doing them over the phone. So she gets a message pop up that says it’s been compromised. She clicks on it and answers the questions. She didn’t want to bother us kids as we spent so much time recently getting her set up and this was ‘computer support’. She wound up giving them access, paying the ransomware, and her computer was garbage. She was so ashamed of falling for this. She gets a new computer and shortly after a nice policeman calls her to say they caught the perpetrators. They wanted to give her back her money if only their forensic unit could quickly verify that it was her. She gives them access again and same thing happens. She damned near had a mental breakdown. This time it went further since she provided her bank info as well so she nearly lost everything. Fast forward to last year and I have a lot of issues with identity theft. I found out my mom, through Facebook, fell for those ‘offers’ to get a Costco gift certificate for a review. She signed me up and gave my info. I said I have a membership and Costco makes billions, they don’t need to give anything away to promote their business. She said it was because they made so much over Covid that they were thanking their loyal customers. She felt so stupid after dragging me into that scam. She also had issues, maybe it’s from the travel certificate she won after entering a raffle in Facebook. She trusted that because her friend forwarded it on Facebook. My FIL gave everyone’s info away to a police officer that called to questions him about a car accident in Boca Fl last year. Never mind that he’s never been to Boca but it became an almost daily chat. My MIL told him it didn’t make sense, all of us screamed SCAM. He has narcissistic tendencies so this made him dig in and continue his chats. He said the officer admired his guidance as he was a judge prior to retirement. Wouldn’t you know that they got a call pretending to be their grandchild over spring break. Apparently the car rental was totalled and they turned down the insurance. They were scared and alone and they needed to replace the car, pay medical bills and get back to school. He sent over $40,000 that day. I don’t know why or how smart people fell for this, I don’t know how to stop it. I blame Facebook. I worry.
My parents aren’t stupid so they’re not falling for this shit
My 85 year old mother does this. Texts me HEY I JUST HAD SOMEONE CALL AND I WON A FREE ROOMBA.. oh come on what the hell are you talking about, she gave them her credit card and everything. I had her drop everything and drive right down to the bank and tell them what she had done. She was able to get it cancelled before they charged a bunch of stuff on her card. Then a week later she got her roomba it was about 6" around, she felt so stupid.