Scam call from tearful male voice saying he is my grandson.
 

I answered and he said . Hello grandma and he was sniffing and sounding like he was crying. I said......Who is calling please, as I always do, I am hearing impaired. My closed captioning that is a few seconds delayed showed me the caller had called me grandma. No one has ever called me grandma in my family, EVER. I hung up. Be wary...and careful. Anyone who would know you are older and do this on purpose is one awful loser.

Good for you. It's sad to see how many seniors fall for scams and con artists.

A friend of mine fell from that scam, they went to the Home Depot bought $5K worth of gift cards-- they never got a dime back

Old Scam...
 

This is one of the old scams that has gone on for years.... Yet people still fall for this crapolla !!! :ohdear:

So easy. Even if you believe it is your grandchild. Why are we not facetiming ? If can't be done right now what is:

1 your grandfather's middle name
2 name your first pet
3 your siblings birth date
4 what was the last gift I gave you

A little forethought about these sort of things goes a long way.

Grandson
 

I like to have fun with it and play along until they catch on and hang up. Used to do this with the calls from the guys about everything wrong with my computer..... I used to give them fits. LOL:1rotfl:

There is a PayPal phone scam still going around where they inform you someone from a different IP address has tried to log into your account, and they have put a hold on your account, sign in to unlock it.

Don't!

If my grandson called from jail, I'd tell him to be careful not to drop the bar of soap.

actually you should tell him that if he does drop the soap to bend at the knees when picking it up

It was a 443 area code with a lot of twos and sevens in the rest of the number...should anyone call you. I looked it up on reverse look up and it said it was a land line in Md with no name attached. I am grateful our grandchildren have been close to us all of their lives and we know them so well, know what they call us, know their mannerisms...and I am grateful that they are independent and financially successful and employed even during this awful time.

I have to ask, why did you even answer this call?
Do you answer all incoming calls?
We also are hearing impaired and have closed captioning on our land line. We don’t answer any calls that we don’t immediately recognize as coming from someone we know.

I friend of mine did as well. The scammer said he was in the hospital in a foreign country and needed money wired to him. It was $15,000.

There are Youtube videos of this. Calls from the IRS where the caller has such a heavy Indian accent one can hardly understand him. Police officer scams an IRS scammer with return phone call - YouTube

I answered it because it looked to be a legitimate number. I don't recognize the telephone number of everyone we know.

There appears to be scam / phishing emails stating they are from Comcast, but if you look at the senders address it is obvious this is not from Comcast, I have sent both these to Comcast so they are aware of what is going on. They say the email system is being changed and you need to click the link to use the new system. DO NOT DO IT!

With caller ID and getting several scams day down here is sunny Florida. I don’t answer any phone calls I don’t recognize. If the want to talk to me they can leave message if I don’t know them. Same goes for emails. If I don’t know who sending them and not already put in junk. I delete them. Scammers think of new ways every day to try to get to you bank account, credit card, SSN, or any information you give them to try to steal you’re identity.

Prior to the pandemic I was getting six to eight robocalls per day on average. There are scam calls among them as a few leave messages; some are from the IRS; some are in Chinese and have music playing in the background. Anyway, the pandemic has reduced them to three or four a week.

I got one of those grandma calls once on my landline when I still lived in Connecticut. Happened around a year ago, after we purchased the house down here. The call went something like this (and remember - I have trouble distinguishing words if I'm unable to read the lips of the person talking):

Caller: "Hello, grandma?"
Me: "Huh?"
C: Grandma it's me.
Me: "Excuse me?"
C: It's me, your grandson.
Me: You're not my grandson.
C: Yes, it's me, don't you remember?
Me: If I had a grandson I'm pretty sure I'd remember.
C: But grandma it really is me!
Me: Dood. I don't have any *#)!$ grandkids you dumb*$$ )#)*($#@##%^
C: CLICK


It was the oddest call I ever got. I don't have any children - and therefore, no grandchildren either.

Now that is funny. I bet there were no more “grandma calls” after that.

Beware of emails scams and hacking too. One from the UK saying Terry cant get home to TV he's lost his wallet and can I send $2000 ( first mistake they do not use $$$ in the UK) I answered because I was playing pickleball with the person mentioned 1 hour ago in TV.... so no way he could be in the UK........PLEASE BEWARE if they get your emails they have your contacts. The latest .. is this email still working.. you have won $3 million......please reply promptly

I'm still waiting!!
 

I agree. I'm still waiting for one of these calls, but have never received one.
I want to tell them to keep him/her-a their own peril!

They prey on the elderly. As a Target employee we have elders coming in a lot saying they need $2000 in GC for “bail money “ or hospital bills. 1) bail bonds men only take cash or collateral they would never ask for GC. 2) no hospital would take Target GC for payment. No matter their story if they ask for GC in payment hang up immediately, inform your local police and let all your friends and family know. Also call the person they say is in danger, hospital or jail and talk to them, they will tell you they are fine. This is a scare tactic they use on the elderly. Please think before you act and don’t panic, the panic is what they depend on.

We have stopped several people from getting scammed by refusing their request. We also have a daily limit on GC and it’s not very high, so we wouldn’t be able to do it anyway.

Good for you grandma!

You can get a msg to the scammer
 

You can have a little fun. No, you can't identify or email the scammer in these cases. As you probably know, their goal is to get you to "login" to paypal using their fake website; this allows them to capture your ID / password. I always go to their fake website to login. Here are my credentials:

Username: JustWanted@To.Say
password: PhuckYouScammer

I get the satisfaction of knowing that they WILL see this on their server.

Meanwhile, regarding paypal security ... everyone should have 2-factor authentication on all their accounts (all the ones that offer it) such as Amazon, eBay, PayPal, your bank, your brokerage, etc. A code is sent to your phone when you attempt to login which you then have to provide in order to proceed.

Even if some scammer got a password to your account, they are stopped dead because they don't have access to your phone and this one-time code. PLUS, if you get a code on your phone for Paypal (example) and it's not you trying to login, you have an immediate alert that your password has been compromised. But, relax ... nothing urgent ... no need to panic - they can't get in without the code. So, just go change your password after you finish your round of golf and take a shower.

I even put 2-factor on my email. Why? Because email is the primary method for password change / recovery; especially for accounts that don't offer 2-factor (yet). So, even if a hacker tried to do a password reset for my grocery delivery account and even if they had my email password, they could not possibly proceed because they can't even get into my email (no code) to complete the process.

Our daughter got a call from"Verizon" saying her account was locked, a quick sign on to the account proved it was not.

Watch out for these type of things too. If you get a email saying something like that, DO NOT CLICK ON THE LINK!. Go to the official site and sign in there.

I have both HIYA and NOMOROBO on my cell, they identify possible scam or fraud, telemarketers, blocked ids etc. some of the calls are blocked, some go to voice mail and some identified. Suggest you get these or something similar several are free. Some carriers, like ATT have their own to download.

If you don’t recognize the caller, don’t answer, if it’s important they will leave a message.

scam

Emails from Apple, PayPal, and others
 

Yes, I have received emails supposedly from Apple, PayPal and Banks saying that my account was compromised and included a link for me to put information, these look real, have logos, and what you would think is legit, don’t forget, your financial accounts have YOUR PHONE NUMBER, they will call you, but don’t give them any info, ask for the extension number, then call the number on the back of the card and dial the extension number, that way you know is legitimate and not a scam, NEVER give information over the phone unless YOU initiated the call and do not acknowledge emails:welcome::welcome::bigbow::bigbow: :boom:

Never answer a call that is not in you contacts. When you do, you legitimize your number to these criminals. If it is a call that is important, let them leave a message and then call back.

This is an old scam that must be surfacing. My 90 year old mother fell for it. Went to the neighborhood bank to get the money this "grandson" said he needed, but thankfully, the bank teller called me first. I told her that it was not legit and then told my mother that my son would never call her for money and if he was in some kind of serious trouble, he would call me or his father. Something to be said for a bank that actually knows their customers.

before all the 'robo calls' I used to like to play along with these callers....

it was as much fun as having a 4 lb. trout on the hook using 2 lb. test line

my favorite way to end the call after stringing them along was to suddenly say "oops my wife just pulled into the driveway, I gotta hang up, she doesn't like me to use the phone"...click

I miss that form of entertainment

:a20::a20::BigApplause::BigApplause:

This is a scam that has been around for some time. Always hang up and contact your family members directly if you have any doubt at all. You did the right thing! I work at Seniors V. crime and when we reopen you can always call us if you are unsure about a possible scam.

Phishing
 

I've gotten this 3 times, twice saying someone had my Apple ID. I forward these to reportphishing@apple.com

I have no idea what if anything Apple does with it.

I do not answer any call that I don't recognize and let it go onto the answering machine then pick it up if it's a legitimate call. Unfortunately almost all doctor offices have people call you from their cell phones where the numbers are all over the place. I still wait for it to go onto the answering machine and if the call is on my cell phone I let it go to voice mail then return the call if I recognize it.

This happened to my 91 year old father a few months ago. The caller claimed to be my son, and somehow he had the name right. Perhaps from Facebook. Being a bit of a joker, my dad carried on the call for quite a while, asking if the caller remembered when they had done this or that special thing together, or that meaningful Christmas present from ten years back, or stories about my late mother. The caller remembered it all. Every story had been made up on the spot. Then my dad told the guy off and hung up, laughing.

Somewhere Jesus said that if anyone hurts a kid, it would be better for a millstone to be tied around the guy’s neck and for him to be thrown into the depths of the sea. I would like to see that be the mandatory punishment for anyone who tries to scam anyone this way. If millstones aren’t available, a suitably heavy substitute could be used. It’s just not right! What sort of scum would even try such a scam.

This scam has been around for a while. I got it one day &- knew the deal. I said is this Tommy & they said yes! I don't have a grandson Tommy. Lol

Must be prevalent here, tried to send Grandson some money and my bank was very suspicious, supervisors came out and question where the funds were going, apparently the key words were "grandson" with no mailing address. Ended. up using Walmart money transfer system.

My wife received such a call and asked the "young man" to spell his last name. It's Ciacciarelli. End of call.