It's easy to fall for these scams because they make it sound like it's an urgency and if you don't do it RIGHT NOW, something terrible will happen. A lot of people, young and older, are panicked and forget common sense. My grandma almost fell for something like this but she told the guy she wasn't in charge of her own money (it was a lie). A coworker almost wired $1M over an email she received from the supposed CFO. I told her my first instinct would have been to call the guy requesting it on his cellphone to make sure it was legit. Something to remember is nothing is urgent. If in doubt, call the company, person (IRS for example) yourself and double-check if the claims are true. Or have someone you trust come over for a second opinion.
NewOrleans, the bank is not at fault or legally responsible. They will make an attempt to get the money back, but it almost always fails. This is a REALLY common issue and takes a ton of resources for the bank for almost no payback. I think our last estimate is that <1% of funds ever get recovered. They do get escalated through the proper legal channels, but there's almost nothing that can be done for the victim, especially if the money was wired outside of the country.
My company is super conservative. Whenever a client sends money to a new beneficiary or updates a beneficiary's account info, we're required to call and confirm that they've verified the remittance instructions verbally on a known number, not responded to an email or responded to a call. Clients HATE this, even though we're trying to protect their funds. Often, they'll either demand we send it out without them calling or lie to us and say they confirmed. And then the money is gone and they want our help...
NewOrleans , the bank is not at fault or legally responsible. They will make an attempt to get the money back, but it almost always fails. This is a REALLY common issue and takes a ton of resources for the bank for almost no payback. I think our last estimate is that <1% of funds ever get recovered.
No payback for the bank. They don’t really care about the victim. Let’s be real.
My company is super conservative. Whenever a client sends money to a new beneficiary or updates a beneficiary's account info, we're required to call and confirm that they've verified the remittance instructions verbally on a known number, not responded to an email or responded to a call. Clients HATE this, even though we're trying to protect their funds. Often, they'll either demand we send it out without them calling or lie to us and say they confirmed. And then the money is gone and they want our help...
Nooo! If I could I would insert the GIF of that weird taxidermy'd cat.
NewOrleans, In this case, the victim told the bank to send out the money. The bank fulfilled their obligation to their customer. The bank is not the bad guy here. It would be nice if that were possible to refund everyone who fell victim to fraud, but unfortunately, it's not.
My company is super conservative. Whenever a client sends money to a new beneficiary or updates a beneficiary's account info, we're required to call and confirm that they've verified the remittance instructions verbally on a known number, not responded to an email or responded to a call. Clients HATE this, even though we're trying to protect their funds. Often, they'll either demand we send it out without them calling or lie to us and say they confirmed. And then the money is gone and they want our help...
Slightly different but my mom works at Wal-Mart and she has older people coming in all the time who try to buy 1000's of dollars worth of gift cards, and she knows it's likely a scam. She tries to gently question them, suggests they call a trusted relative, shows them store info posters regarding popular scams, etc., and some do realize it, but so many insist on going through with it. She always refuses to sell them the cards (she makes a manager do it).
Nine times out of ten the person (or their son/daughter/grandchild, etc.) comes back in and demands their money back, and of course there's nothing Wal-Mart can really do. It's really sad.
I'm sorry about all who have been scammed. It doesnt apply for this scenario unfortunately since it was in person, but some homeowner insurance companies offer Cyber protection. This coverage may provide computer checks, reimbursement for digital scams, reimbursement for ransoms paid, guidance through recovering from the scam, etc. It's not a common coverage yet but it's out there.
I would notify the police that a scam is operating in that area. I come from a small town and they do press releases when scams are operating in the area. Maybe if they are on a neighbor site or whatever they can also put the word out. I had a coworker who would send a woman in Russia (whom he had never met) hundreds of dollars a month via western union. We would casually talk about romance scams around him and he would even say "oh wow that's terrible" but not realize he was being taken. He was in his 30s so we didn't want to straight out tell him he was being scammed. So I don't think it's just your parents ages. He even sent her money for a plane ticket to meet her and surprise, surprise... something came up and she "missed" her flight twice before she ghosted him. It's beyond frustrating to see this happen to people.
Post by sometimesrunner on Jul 7, 2022 15:22:41 GMT -5
Ugh I'm sorry this happened to your mom. I don't have any advice, but I think contacting the police is a good idea.
Years ago my GMIL received a call from someone impersonating my H. The guy on the phone told her to wire him money because he was in jail and needed bail money. She went to Western Union and thankfully a very sweet person working there asked that she call someone to verify the story she was told on the phone.
Ugh I'm sorry this happened to your mom. I don't have any advice, but I think contacting the police is a good idea.
Years ago my GMIL received a call from someone impersonating my H. The guy on the phone told her to wire him money because he was in jail and needed bail money. She went to Western Union and thankfully a very sweet person working there asked that she call someone to verify the story she was told on the phone.
This happened to my grandmother once while I was staying with her and she didn’t tell me about it because she assumed the “son” on the phone was my father. She was acting fishy all night until I finally got it out of her.
Ugh I'm sorry this happened to your mom. I don't have any advice, but I think contacting the police is a good idea.
Years ago my GMIL received a call from someone impersonating my H. The guy on the phone told her to wire him money because he was in jail and needed bail money. She went to Western Union and thankfully a very sweet person working there asked that she call someone to verify the story she was told on the phone.
The armchair expert podcast started a new series where callers tell their stories about different topics and one was about scams. The craziest one, a guy got a call saying his mom tried to hit and run in an accident, was caught, and was now being held for ransom. The son was skeptical but they put his mom on the phone and she was saying all the things you’d expect, like just do what they say! It turns out they had her number, we’re running the same scam on her simultaneously, telling them prompts and recording their voices to play back to each other. So they’d say, talk to your son and tell him to do what we say, she would, and that’s what he was hearing.
OP, I’m sorry that happened to your mom. I’m always so leery of door to door solicitors, and a lot of times they know our names. As soon as I tell them we rent, they usually go away.
My company is super conservative. Whenever a client sends money to a new beneficiary or updates a beneficiary's account info, we're required to call and confirm that they've verified the remittance instructions verbally on a known number, not responded to an email or responded to a call. Clients HATE this, even though we're trying to protect their funds. Often, they'll either demand we send it out without them calling or lie to us and say they confirmed. And then the money is gone and they want our help...
Slightly different but my mom works at Wal-Mart and she has older people coming in all the time who try to buy 1000's of dollars worth of gift cards, and she knows it's likely a scam. She tries to gently question them, suggests they call a trusted relative, shows them store info posters regarding popular scams, etc., and some do realize it, but so many insist on going through with it. She always refuses to sell them the cards (she makes a manager do it).
Nine times out of ten the person (or their son/daughter/grandchild, etc.) comes back in and demands their money back, and of course there's nothing Wal-Mart can really do. It's really sad.
I bless people like your Mom. My stepmom has fallen for several scams and at least twice, someone tried to or succeeded in stopping her at this stage. Her bank has also tried to help her when it happens. I just can't convince her to call her daughter or me if she ever has a question about it.
Scammers deserve their own special place in hell.
@professerartnerd, I hope your Mom is OK. I know it knocks my stepmom's confidence whenever it happens.
Post by wanderingback on Jul 8, 2022 7:18:23 GMT -5
I’ve never heard of this. So what’s the scam? They don’t actually do work that they say they do and demand payment? Thanks for the heads up. Sorry that you all have to deal with this.
Ugh I'm sorry this happened to your mom. I don't have any advice, but I think contacting the police is a good idea.
Years ago my GMIL received a call from someone impersonating my H. The guy on the phone told her to wire him money because he was in jail and needed bail money. She went to Western Union and thankfully a very sweet person working there asked that she call someone to verify the story she was told on the phone.
The armchair expert podcast started a new series where callers tell their stories about different topics and one was about scams. The craziest one, a guy got a call saying his mom tried to hit and run in an accident, was caught, and was now being held for ransom. The son was skeptical but they put his mom on the phone and she was saying all the things you’d expect, like just do what they say! It turns out they had her number, we’re running the same scam on her simultaneously, telling them prompts and recording their voices to play back to each other. So they’d say, talk to your son and tell him to do what we say, she would, and that’s what he was hearing.
OP, I’m sorry that happened to your mom. I’m always so leery of door to door solicitors, and a lot of times they know our names. As soon as I tell them we rent, they usually go away.
this happened to my cousin; it was awful for her both because she lost money and was traumatized thinking of her friend in this situation.
I know CVS or Walgreens are now questioning people wanting to do a Western Union transfer at their store because that's how the IRS scammers want their money.
If someone has already said this, I missed it, but your mom should also go to her bank and close that account and transfer all funds to a new account. It's a giant pain in the ass, especially with any auto pay/auto deduct, but I had to do the same when my identity was stolen to fully stop the bullshit. All the fraud protection alerts in the world didn't help.
I would also suggest she call a local legit roofing company and have them come out and take a look at what was done, the overall condition of her roof, and explain the supposed issues they found.
She needs to make sure they didn't do something that will cause a further issue.
Some roofing can be done same day and handled real quick BUT it is ALWAYS explained to the customer, even if no formal proposal is written, it still needs verbal consent.
In addition to making my grandmother's checking account require two signatures, we had to work with her to keep the door locked and not answer when she wasn't expecting someone (by that point, unfortunately all of her friends had died, so no one except family had a legit reason to ring the bell). A friend's elderly dad was injured during a scam where someone rang the bell and was keeping him talking while another guy robbed the house - they pushed him down when they ran away and gave him a black eye and other injuries from the fall. Same with the phone - my grandmother was only supposed to answer calls from family. All of her doctors, etc. dealt with my aunt for logistics. My grandmother was very hard of hearing by that point, so she shouldn't have been conducting business on the phone anyway. I think my aunt held onto the checkbook and the ATM card. I've also heard of people lowering credit card limits and only keeping enough in the checking account and any overdraft accounts to pay bills with a small cushion. If you and your sister don't already handle their bills, I would try that since they will have to close and open new accounts anyway. Get everything online and on autopay so there's never a reason for them to have easy access to $2000. In this day and age, I don't know of anyone who needs immediate access to $2000. I'm sorry your mom got scammed.