Seniors are among the most common victims targeted by scammers and fraudsters. Criminals rely on these people’s vulnerabilities, and often, on the presumption that they are less able to spot a scam. In recent years, many online scams have also centered on seniors. In this case, the presumption is that the elderly are easier to trick because they’re less tech-savvy. So many cases of scams targeting the elderly have been reported in recent years that the FBI even has a dedicated page in which it warns seniors on the risk of scams and provides some recommendations on how to avoid them.
FBI’s senior scam page focuses on what they call ‘the grandparent scam’. The FBI presents a quick example of this scam, one that was replicated thousands of times. This is a telephone scam in which a senior gets a call from someone who claims to be their grandson or granddaughter. The purpose of the call is to inform them that the so-called grandson was arrested in a foreign country. To be able to get out of jail, the scammer asks for money to pay their bills.
A sense of urgency is always what these scams focus on. The caller says he or she needs the wire transfer as soon as possible and they also insist that their parents shouldn’t know about their situation because they would only get upset. A loving elderly person who’s completely shocked by the news could easily fail to realize the caller is impersonating their relative and proceed with the transfer.
According to the FBI, this scam has been around since 2008, at least. However, in time, it grew more and more sophisticated, and scammers began leveraging different other communication channels such as social platforms and apps to pull out successful tricks like this. Social networks have facilitated scammers’ job because they provide lots of personal details on individuals. For example, their hobbies and locations. Once a scammer knows a senior has a grandson who’s passionate about traveling and is currently in Europe, they can easily create a more plausible story.
There are different other variations of this scam. For example, to avoid the risky in-person phone call that might or might not work, scammers sometimes claim they are police officers who have arrested the person’s grandchild or their lawyer. In another scenario, scammers pretend they are doctors calling from a foreign hospital. They claim they need money for an urgent intervention the person required after being involved in a car accident.
In conclusion, sometimes, scammers work in pairs. The first person calls and talks for a few seconds pretending to be the grandchild, and then passes the phone to the alleged lawyer, doctor, or police officer.
What to do if you were scammed?
Victims of these financial scams usually incur significant losses of thousands of dollars. However, the involved amounts are below the necessary threshold that would prompt the FBI to start an investigation. For this reason, seniors who fall for these scams are advised to report them to the local authorities. The consumer protection agency in their state should also be alerted in this case.
What to do to avoid these scams?
There are different recommendations the FBI issued after seeing the surging number of grandparent scams. Since these frauds leverage people’s emotions, sensibility, and empathy, the first piece of advice is to resist the pressure of acting quickly. Scammers who claim they’re a loved one who is in trouble and needs urgent money count on the sense of emergency they create.
The first impulse when you hear that your grandchild is in a critical situation is to step in and help. However, only a few minutes of patience can prove extremely useful in critical circ*mstances. Instead of rushing to send the required money, people are advised to try to contact their relative directly. They will probably discover that the grandchild is safely at home or at work. If the person is not available, trying to contact their parents to tell them what happened and check their whereabouts is the second best course of action.
Finally, consumers are advised to never wire money to anyone following a phone or an email request that comes from a foreign country.
It typically arrives in letter form and it conveys the following (false) information: The letter is from a non-profit group advocating for seniors. Congress is trying to get rid of Social Security. The fake organization is working against that plan.
Four overarching factors contributed to the failures of Katrina: 1) long-term warnings went unheeded and government officials neglected their duties to prepare for a forewarned catastrophe; 2) government officials took insufficient actions or made poor decisions in the days immediately before and after landfall; 3) ...
The Federal Emergency Management Agency was heavily criticized in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, primarily for its slow response and inability to coordinate its efforts with other federal agencies relief organizations.
The Louisiana National Guard delivered three truckloads of water and seven truckloads of MRE's to the Superdome, "enough to supply 15,000 people for three days" said Colonel Jay Mayeaux, director of the Department of Homeland Security's office for emergency preparedness.
Contact the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) at 1-800-908-4490 or visit them online, if you believe someone is using your SSN to work, get your tax refund, or other abuses involving taxes. Order free credit reports annually from the three major credit bureaus (Equifax, Experian, and TransUnion).
En español | The AARP Social Security Resource Center is as an online retirement-planning tool designed to help you figure out your eligibility for Social Security payments, when you can get them, and how much you and your family can receive.
The Galveston Hurricane of August 1900 was the deadliest hurricane in United States history, according to NOAA, causing tremendous destruction and loss of life. An estimated 8,000 to 12,000 people died in the storm, making it the deadliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
No.Hurricanes are a force of nature and as such can not be stopped. That said, the destruction caused by the storm could have been stopped. New Orleans itself is protected by a series of levees and pumps.
Of the 1.5 million Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama residents that evacuated for Hurricane Katrina, approximately 40% did not return. Thousands were left homeless, and the population of New Orleans was reduced by half.
Emergency managers in New Orleans had been debating whether the levee system would work in a major hurricane before Katrina hit. Federal funding cuts left many projects undone and local engineers were not surprised when water surged into New Orleans.
By August 30, with no air conditioning, temperatures inside the dome had reached the 90s, and the punctured dome at once allowed humidity in and trapped it there. Tempers began to flare as hunger and thirst deepened. Food rotted inside the hundreds of unpowered refrigerators and freezers spread throughout the building.
Remodeling after Hurricane Katrina leveled out in January 2007 putting the primary recovery period at 18 months after the storm. Superstorm Sandy's remodeling activity appeared to return to normal after around eight months later. After Hurricane Ike, the primary recovery period was around 16 months.
Hurricane Katrina was a tropical cyclone that struck the southeastern United States in late August 2005. The hurricane and its aftermath claimed more than 1,800 lives, and it ranked as the costliest natural disaster in U.S. history.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina made its major landfall on the Gulf Coast, near the town of Buras in southeast Louisiana. It continued moving north along the Louisiana coast and later made a second landfall at the mouth of the Pearl River, at the border of Louisiana and Mississippi.
Links to the official Social Security website will always begin with https://www.ssa.gov/ or https://secure.ssa.gov/. Below are examples of fraudulent websites pretending to direct you to Social Security. Notice the location of the forward slash.
If you receive a letter from Social Security and are not sure if it is real or not, you can verify it by calling 1-800-772-1213. SSA also encourages people to set up an account at My Social Security to be able to check notices and your benefits at any time.
Is North American Senior Benefits legitimate? Yes. North American Senior Benefits is a legitimate company that specializes in providing life insurance to seniors, baby boomers and anyone over the age of 50. They have been in business since 2015 and are accredited by the Better Business Bureau with an A+ rating.
Address: Apt. 203 613 Huels Gateway, Ralphtown, LA 40204
Phone: +2135150832870
Job: Regional Design Producer
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Introduction: My name is Fredrick Kertzmann, I am a gleaming, encouraging, inexpensive, thankful, tender, quaint, precious person who loves writing and wants to share my knowledge and understanding with you.
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