Quote:
Originally Posted by MplsPete
A neighbor told me he fell for a scam, maybe better characterized as blackmail. He was in his mid 80s, had a PhD, and had taught at an ivy league university. He seemed reasonably sharp, mentally. This was about 4 years ago. Someone contacted him, said they with Interpol, were going to arrest him for money laundering or some such. Whatever they told him, they scared him enough that he thought it would be a good idea to wire ~$200,000 to China. It's been a while so the details are hazy, and who knows how much of what he told me was accurate; he was embarrassed. It was almost all of his money, but he had a little left and a pension; enough to live adequately for the next year or two, until he died.
You can see this is not a unique event, if you search: Interpol scam.
So it can happen to smart people too . . .
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Well, maybe.
about 8 years ago, "Marshall Alvarez" called me (I still had a land line then) to inform me that he was going to have me arrested on a bench warrant for failure to appear for federal jury duty in Ocala. If I didn't bring him two "vouchers" (African term for teller's checks) of $1500.00 each, he would have "local" law enforcement arrest me and I should have my lawyers present.
I countered with "Since this is a federal warrant and you are a federal agent, why don't YOU come here and arrest me, and I'll have my lawyers here. They're from the law firm of Smith, Wesson, Colt, Remington and Glock and they are
real anxious to meet you. If not, then why don't you crawl back to whatever third world sh**hole you came from. Needless to say, he hung up.
Now, people must fall for this, or he wouldn't be doing it. But I'm sorry for still considering that stupid or gullible. If it is dementia related, obviously those people would need a conservator appointed.