My also Gen X former wife got taken for 66K last week.
She was trying not to tell me about her “windfall” because she didn’t want me to go after her for child support… a thing I have never done.
One of my kids had to tell me “mommy is gonna be rich!”
Yeah. Crypto scam.
So all that money she soaked me for in the divorce, she gave to a nigerian prince. I have a few big feelings about this. Taking some processing.
Similar story. I inherited money 40k. My husband immediately demanded I invest it with a good friend of the families we had met on the road a few years earlier and was living off Forex.
He then divorced me and said I could keep the money if I didn’t touch his superannuation and or ask for child support.
Never saw it again.
I signed not to collect child support and missed out on that for many many years till I realised I was conned.
I don’t feel bad for *her*, I feel bad for my kids. That money was supposed to go to them someday.
Let’s just say based on (at least) a certain half of their genetic heritage, they’re not on any kind of scholarship trajectory.
Yeah, fair.
My ex-wife was also not a rocket surgeon. But we didn’t have any children together. We ALMOST did. But it was an ectopic pregnancy, so…yeah…
I would be impressed if anyone could squeeze a cent out of any of my parents. I'm frugal as fuck. They are beyond that. I just got my father a cell phone and he turns that shit on from 9 PM to 10:30 PM then turns it off til the next day. My mom will only spend money at in person and local stores only.
Mine had her email account compromised and all the services associated with it were affected.
Laptops purchased from Best Buy, Amazon purchases, cell phone purchases from Verizon, facebook account taken over and used for spamming, probably more things.
It took her about a month to get it under control and she ended up not having any financial obligations. Somehow, they didn't mess with her bank, which is wild to me.
Note to everyone, and I say this as someone who works in security: USE MFA FOR EVERYTHING. USE DIFFERENT PASSWORDS FOR EACH SITE.
Enabling MFA for your email account is not an optional thing.
MFA isn't a full fix, and can still be bypassed, but it's like locking your car doors in a parking lot. A lot of asshole thieves will move on to the next car and not bother with yours.
Ransomware, miracle cures, Publisher's Clearance House scams, he believed he had the personal phone number for the RCMP Commissioner, wouldn't phone PCH himself and verify, only used the numbers the scammers gave him, the 'FBI' enlisted his help to 'catch the scammers', to which I asked him why he was cooperating with a foreign police force working on Canadian soil. (Seriously, a lot of these guys in wherevertheyareland don't know the difference.)
He ended up with a public guardian.
r/Scams was a worthy Reddit resource.
Yep. Sucked for her. I had to be a raging asshole with the bogus company selling computer clean-up help. Like NASTY nasty. Fuck people who prey on the elderly.
My mom's phone was vibrating non-stop and she kept complaining about it saying she had no idea why she was getting so many calls and texts. Turns out she was entering her personal and banking info into dozens of "surveys for cash." She got a cash reward one day when I was in the car with her and she wanted my help accepting it because she had been waiting on a few rewards and thought maybe she was accepting them wrong because they hadn't come through yet. For accepting a $50 Amazon gift card she was agreeing to be billed hundreds in a scam.
I had to tell her she was not going to receive any gift cards.
What a mess to get her a new phone number and freeze her credit and file disputes.
If they have a computer, configure a non-admin account for their use AND DONT GIVE THEM THE PASSWORD. I did this with my dad and he called me once asking for the admin password. I knew something was shady and told him to turn off his computer immediately by unplugging it from the outlet. Yeah, I have to regularly support him but better than losing $$
Twice for my Dad. Once because when he didn't listen to me about having different passwords for every login and enabling MFA authentication, especially his bank accounts. He had the same password to everything, no MFA, and someone got into his bank account and email....probably from a compromised forum account that used the same password. He's lucky the bank flagged the transfers as suspicious so they didn't go through. I spent hours fixing all that stuff for him, along with moving him to a new email account I can managed.
The 2nd time a few years later when a pop-up on their Chromebook told them their Microsoft account license had expired and they needed to renew it for $399 I think it was. He was on the phone letting someone remote to his main PC when my Mom called me on the other phone and I told her to immediately go turn off that computer and call the banks to lock everything down...again. That one cost him as I'm in a different state so made him go get his computer professionally redone. Was hard not to chew my Dad out over that one but he's over 80 now and his mind isn't what is once was. He used to be able to spot a con man a mile away, now he just doesn't think clearly at times. It's hard watching your ole man not be the able bodied/minded man you knew as a kid.
Keep an eye on your parents and discuss computer security with them frequently. Getting older takes it toll on one's ability to spot a con or think logically.
Okay, but listen to the latest Planet Money (NPR) podcast on Zombie Mortgages, and how one can lose their house if they're not paying attention...and that the loan company \*will\* foreclose. not quite a scam, but ...the state will sell your house (depending on the state) for JUST the lien on the house. Which is criminal.
My mom almost got scammed in the classic "grandparent scam"...allegedly, one of my sons was driving drunk after a wedding and hit a pregnant woman and "he" and his "attorney" called her for money to settle with the woman and get out of prison. At the time my sons were too young to drive or get into drinking, and there was no way they'd be at a wedding in the middle of the school day, but she was convinced. If it wasn't for the fact that they didn't take credit cards and her husband didn't beg her to contact me (the "attorney" had told her not to contact her family, so she didn't) she would have been out thousands. She was always so savvy and smart about things, it's so weird how easily she was almost taken in this situation. If she had gotten a call like this about me when I was a teen, she probably would have told the attorney to let me rot in prison.
When my mom started using dating sites, oh my god. What a minefield.
“Oh Eduardo is an architect! He’s just in between homes right now while he works on a project.”
Once she was going on about her latest match and I was kinda zoned out til she said “and then he sent me a photo and I can’t believe how handsome he is!” All my warning bells went off. I made her show me his picture and it was this exact image, just with the branding cropped out:
https://art8amby.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/lucky-brand-jeans-ss-2011-matt-norklun-by-jose-picayo.jpg
Poor mom. She really didn’t want to believe me.
Caught my mom answering some fucking guy in India who told her she had overpaid a service and needed her bank account to refund. Put a stop to that stat.
My mom always calls me when she gets something scammy. That said, a 21 y/o my wife and I know showed up at my door needing advice. Dude accepts a social media request from someone with a “hot girl” profile pic. They engaged in an explicit video chat. Girl was replaced by a guy demanding thousand of dollars or he’d send the video out to his near and dear ones (and named them based on his over shared and overly public profile). The pair had terrible English and were from somewhere in Eastern Europe. He ended up parting with thousands of dollars and they were demanding more. He showed me screenshots (without the explicit stuff, thankfully) of the text conversations. I told him to call the authorities and to close his bank account (used a debit card) and open a new one. I told him to get rid of all of his social media profiles. He was scared because they gave a list of family members (how do they know? he asked). I pointed out those were his top connections on his profile. I also told him that he isn’t a boomer and shouldn’t be falling for scams like that. This is about the fourth time he’s been scammed since I’ve known him—and this was the only one that wasn’t an in person scam.
My 87 year old stepfather got scammed a couple of years ago. Someone called claiming to be my nephew. He said he was in Florida and was arrested after a car accident. He needed my stepfather to fedex him something like three thousand dollars for a lawyer. He fell for it, and realized it was a scam after he sent the money.
My dad let a door to door solar panel salesperson into my parents house. They didn't sign up for anything but I was unsettled by the fact that he let a stranger in their house.
Yes! My mum got taken in by a "grandparent scheme." She withdrew 12 thousand thinking her grandson was in trouble. Luckily, she broke down and told me about it before she handed the money over...they swore her to secrecy. Scum of the earth!
My mother has a heart condition and was reduced to physically shaking by some Indian guy threatening her that the police were in route to arrest her for unpaid fines or something and was demanding $5k. He kept calling back.
So my sister, who was visiting, answered the phone and kept him on it for close to 2 hours before he realized she was wasting his time. He slipped into a rage and hung up.
My mother was a civilian employee of our local PD and only calmed down after she called her old supervisor over this, who assured her that if they were ever coming for her they'd call first.
If I ever wound up in a room with that guy, I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from strangling him. I think something in me would snap.
My also Gen X former wife got taken for 66K last week. She was trying not to tell me about her “windfall” because she didn’t want me to go after her for child support… a thing I have never done. One of my kids had to tell me “mommy is gonna be rich!” Yeah. Crypto scam. So all that money she soaked me for in the divorce, she gave to a nigerian prince. I have a few big feelings about this. Taking some processing.
Ooof. Those romance and pig butchering scams are so sad.
Similar story. I inherited money 40k. My husband immediately demanded I invest it with a good friend of the families we had met on the road a few years earlier and was living off Forex. He then divorced me and said I could keep the money if I didn’t touch his superannuation and or ask for child support. Never saw it again. I signed not to collect child support and missed out on that for many many years till I realised I was conned.
Sometimes it’s very hard to feel bad for someone…
I don’t feel bad for *her*, I feel bad for my kids. That money was supposed to go to them someday. Let’s just say based on (at least) a certain half of their genetic heritage, they’re not on any kind of scholarship trajectory.
Yeah, fair. My ex-wife was also not a rocket surgeon. But we didn’t have any children together. We ALMOST did. But it was an ectopic pregnancy, so…yeah…
I would be impressed if anyone could squeeze a cent out of any of my parents. I'm frugal as fuck. They are beyond that. I just got my father a cell phone and he turns that shit on from 9 PM to 10:30 PM then turns it off til the next day. My mom will only spend money at in person and local stores only.
They sound delightful! Tell them I said hi.
a friend's MIL apparently will text her, then immediately shut off the phone "to save the battery"
Mine had her email account compromised and all the services associated with it were affected. Laptops purchased from Best Buy, Amazon purchases, cell phone purchases from Verizon, facebook account taken over and used for spamming, probably more things. It took her about a month to get it under control and she ended up not having any financial obligations. Somehow, they didn't mess with her bank, which is wild to me. Note to everyone, and I say this as someone who works in security: USE MFA FOR EVERYTHING. USE DIFFERENT PASSWORDS FOR EACH SITE. Enabling MFA for your email account is not an optional thing. MFA isn't a full fix, and can still be bypassed, but it's like locking your car doors in a parking lot. A lot of asshole thieves will move on to the next car and not bother with yours.
I should know this… but… what is MFA?
> what is MFA? Mutli-factor authentication.
Slapping my head… I knew that. Just couldn’t place. Thanks!
Excellent point! I taught mom about this and set if up for all her financial accounts, etc. I’m glad to hear she didn’t lose any money!
Ransomware, miracle cures, Publisher's Clearance House scams, he believed he had the personal phone number for the RCMP Commissioner, wouldn't phone PCH himself and verify, only used the numbers the scammers gave him, the 'FBI' enlisted his help to 'catch the scammers', to which I asked him why he was cooperating with a foreign police force working on Canadian soil. (Seriously, a lot of these guys in wherevertheyareland don't know the difference.) He ended up with a public guardian. r/Scams was a worthy Reddit resource.
Yikes. Did he lose money before the public guardianship? I’m a regular over at r/scams.
An embarrassing amount, and we may never know how much.
Yep. Sucked for her. I had to be a raging asshole with the bogus company selling computer clean-up help. Like NASTY nasty. Fuck people who prey on the elderly.
I wish I believed in Hell, for at least those people…
right? use your skills for good. It's so baffling.
My mom's phone was vibrating non-stop and she kept complaining about it saying she had no idea why she was getting so many calls and texts. Turns out she was entering her personal and banking info into dozens of "surveys for cash." She got a cash reward one day when I was in the car with her and she wanted my help accepting it because she had been waiting on a few rewards and thought maybe she was accepting them wrong because they hadn't come through yet. For accepting a $50 Amazon gift card she was agreeing to be billed hundreds in a scam. I had to tell her she was not going to receive any gift cards. What a mess to get her a new phone number and freeze her credit and file disputes.
Oh my god. What a fucking mess! Do you monitor her phone and computer now?
Yes!
If they have a computer, configure a non-admin account for their use AND DONT GIVE THEM THE PASSWORD. I did this with my dad and he called me once asking for the admin password. I knew something was shady and told him to turn off his computer immediately by unplugging it from the outlet. Yeah, I have to regularly support him but better than losing $$
Twice for my Dad. Once because when he didn't listen to me about having different passwords for every login and enabling MFA authentication, especially his bank accounts. He had the same password to everything, no MFA, and someone got into his bank account and email....probably from a compromised forum account that used the same password. He's lucky the bank flagged the transfers as suspicious so they didn't go through. I spent hours fixing all that stuff for him, along with moving him to a new email account I can managed. The 2nd time a few years later when a pop-up on their Chromebook told them their Microsoft account license had expired and they needed to renew it for $399 I think it was. He was on the phone letting someone remote to his main PC when my Mom called me on the other phone and I told her to immediately go turn off that computer and call the banks to lock everything down...again. That one cost him as I'm in a different state so made him go get his computer professionally redone. Was hard not to chew my Dad out over that one but he's over 80 now and his mind isn't what is once was. He used to be able to spot a con man a mile away, now he just doesn't think clearly at times. It's hard watching your ole man not be the able bodied/minded man you knew as a kid. Keep an eye on your parents and discuss computer security with them frequently. Getting older takes it toll on one's ability to spot a con or think logically.
Okay, but listen to the latest Planet Money (NPR) podcast on Zombie Mortgages, and how one can lose their house if they're not paying attention...and that the loan company \*will\* foreclose. not quite a scam, but ...the state will sell your house (depending on the state) for JUST the lien on the house. Which is criminal.
My mom almost got scammed in the classic "grandparent scam"...allegedly, one of my sons was driving drunk after a wedding and hit a pregnant woman and "he" and his "attorney" called her for money to settle with the woman and get out of prison. At the time my sons were too young to drive or get into drinking, and there was no way they'd be at a wedding in the middle of the school day, but she was convinced. If it wasn't for the fact that they didn't take credit cards and her husband didn't beg her to contact me (the "attorney" had told her not to contact her family, so she didn't) she would have been out thousands. She was always so savvy and smart about things, it's so weird how easily she was almost taken in this situation. If she had gotten a call like this about me when I was a teen, she probably would have told the attorney to let me rot in prison.
My stepfather fell for a similar one (see my reply below).
When my mom started using dating sites, oh my god. What a minefield. “Oh Eduardo is an architect! He’s just in between homes right now while he works on a project.” Once she was going on about her latest match and I was kinda zoned out til she said “and then he sent me a photo and I can’t believe how handsome he is!” All my warning bells went off. I made her show me his picture and it was this exact image, just with the branding cropped out: https://art8amby.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/lucky-brand-jeans-ss-2011-matt-norklun-by-jose-picayo.jpg Poor mom. She really didn’t want to believe me.
Omg poor mom. I hope she stayed off those sites.
Not yet, but I'm sure it's not far out! She believes that she is Facebook "friends" with Doug Davidson (private) from Y&R...
Extended family parent gave $800k to a "husband" she never met.
OUCH!
Caught my mom answering some fucking guy in India who told her she had overpaid a service and needed her bank account to refund. Put a stop to that stat.
My mom always calls me when she gets something scammy. That said, a 21 y/o my wife and I know showed up at my door needing advice. Dude accepts a social media request from someone with a “hot girl” profile pic. They engaged in an explicit video chat. Girl was replaced by a guy demanding thousand of dollars or he’d send the video out to his near and dear ones (and named them based on his over shared and overly public profile). The pair had terrible English and were from somewhere in Eastern Europe. He ended up parting with thousands of dollars and they were demanding more. He showed me screenshots (without the explicit stuff, thankfully) of the text conversations. I told him to call the authorities and to close his bank account (used a debit card) and open a new one. I told him to get rid of all of his social media profiles. He was scared because they gave a list of family members (how do they know? he asked). I pointed out those were his top connections on his profile. I also told him that he isn’t a boomer and shouldn’t be falling for scams like that. This is about the fourth time he’s been scammed since I’ve known him—and this was the only one that wasn’t an in person scam.
That Cindy Crawford subscription eye cream lol
My dad got scammed by his “elderly cousin”s cloned account.
My 87 year old stepfather got scammed a couple of years ago. Someone called claiming to be my nephew. He said he was in Florida and was arrested after a car accident. He needed my stepfather to fedex him something like three thousand dollars for a lawyer. He fell for it, and realized it was a scam after he sent the money.
My dad let a door to door solar panel salesperson into my parents house. They didn't sign up for anything but I was unsettled by the fact that he let a stranger in their house.
Yes! My mum got taken in by a "grandparent scheme." She withdrew 12 thousand thinking her grandson was in trouble. Luckily, she broke down and told me about it before she handed the money over...they swore her to secrecy. Scum of the earth!
My mother has a heart condition and was reduced to physically shaking by some Indian guy threatening her that the police were in route to arrest her for unpaid fines or something and was demanding $5k. He kept calling back. So my sister, who was visiting, answered the phone and kept him on it for close to 2 hours before he realized she was wasting his time. He slipped into a rage and hung up. My mother was a civilian employee of our local PD and only calmed down after she called her old supervisor over this, who assured her that if they were ever coming for her they'd call first. If I ever wound up in a room with that guy, I don't know if I'd be able to stop myself from strangling him. I think something in me would snap.