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Cognitive decline plays a big role in the susceptibility of elderly folks. An uncle of mine was a notoriously a ruthless businessman in his heyday and he fell

by animex 3y ago

Cognitive decline plays a big role in the susceptibility of elderly folks. An uncle of mine was a notoriously a ruthless businessman in his heyday and he fell prey to a gift-card scam where he was kept on the phone for 8 hours straight while he did their bidding. We were all shocked he fell for this but then realized the techniques that they use prey upon individuals with inability to deal with stress or trigger anxiety/panic causing them to act irrationally. As I age, I've noticed similar declines in ability to deal with multiple tasks, stress, etc. A better defence is to reduce the attack surface. While, I have legal financial control over mom's estate, suffering from moderate dementia, I've removed her ability to interact with her finances by removing her check book (she had loaned a large sum to an acquaintance without informing us), lowering her credit card limits, removed access to online banking, maintaining a low-balance checking account. All her expenses are on autopay. She doesn't even think about her finances anymore. Whenever she gets telemarketers, she always says "you have to talk to my son". Once in a blue moon she asks me "do I have money? I don't even know" -- and I reassure her she doesn't have to worry about money. I've done the same -- 2factor, using disposable credit card numbers, maintaining a separate PayPal-linked bank account separate from my main account etc, text notifications on all transactions etc. The sophistication and technology being used is also becoming problematic in detecting these scenarios even for highly aware/technical folk.

bombcar 3y ago
Setting the phone to not ring for unknown numbers is also powerful, but to make it work best you need a way to be able to "add" numbers remotely. I wish it was more intelligent; I'd love to tell it what area codes to permit; the advantage of having a phone from half way around the country is that I only care about a few area codes and the scammers don't know which ones those are.
- ryandrake 3y ago
  Sadly, area codes are no longer a meaningful signal of anything. My family has three cell phones and one VOIP number; and those use four different area codes, hundreds of miles apart.
  - bombcar 3y ago
    It's a signal that a call is a scam - 99.99999% of calls to me from the area code of my phone number (and surrounding area codes) are worthless scam calls, because of https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/ I'd love to ignore all calls from unknown numbers EXCEPT the actual area code I reside in, which they don't know. Then calls from schools, doctors, etc might actually get through. As it is, those go to voicemail and I get them eventually.
    - acheron 3y ago
      His year is off -- my area code is where I lived in 2002-03 and specifically not in 2005, but yeah. I blocked all that area code except for a couple specific numbers.
    - dmitrygr 3y ago
      WideProtect on iOS can get you most of the way there: "block all phone numbers in the following area codes except those in my contacts book"
    - arcanemachiner 3y ago
      I regularly get scam calls that spoof my area code. Hell, my number is even commonly spoofed! Every few months, I get a call from someone, then I get to explain to them that scammers can spoof phone numbers.
      - petsfed 3y ago
        I got threatened with violence, while I was watching my first born child sleep, hours after her birth, by someone who was convinced I'd spent the previous hours repeatedly calling his girlfriend. He was not willing to listen to reason.
    - idontwantthis 3y ago
      I thought that would work for me, and I got a local number before moving across the country. Somehow I’m getting spam calls from where I actually live now, and not from my phone’s area code. No idea how that happens. I haven’t gotten a single spam call from the area code.
ryandrake 3y ago
> The sophistication and technology being used is also becoming problematic in detecting these scenarios even for highly aware/technical folk. This kind of worries me too, but I think we can still defend almost 100% by just following rule #1: “Do not send money in response to anyone contacting you unsolicited, either over the phone, email, SMS, social media, etc.” You can get a lot of mileage from just that. There is never a case where such contact is not a scam or spam. If it’s someone you know or already do business with, use rule #2: hang up, wait an hour, and call them back using a number you know to be correct.
- boomboomsubban 3y ago
  >There is never a case where such contact is not a scam or spam. Bail?
  - ryandrake 3y ago
    I edited my comment to clarify Rule #2: hang up, wait some time, then call back on the known correct number.
    - boomboomsubban 3y ago
      If they're in jail, that's not going to work.
      - aidenn0 3y ago
        You can lookup the number of the jail they are supposedly in. There was a scam attempt against me that spoofed the caller-id to look like the county sheriff; scammer would not agree to me calling them back on that (or any other) number for the sheriff.
      - AnIrishDuck 3y ago
        Um, yes it will? You pay the court clerk [1]. You either pay in person, or possibly online depending on the jurisdiction. If you aren't paying in person, you'll need to contact them directly anyway, and their contact info should be easy to verify. It's not like they're going to be sitting next to the detained party on the phone with a bitcoin deposit address. 1. https://legalaidnyc.org/get-help/bail-incarceration/what-you-need-to-know-about-bail/ https://legalaidnyc.org/get-help/bail-incarceration/what-you...
wolpoli 3y ago
> I have legal financial control over mom's estate A note to anyone in Canada reading this: This would be considered a bare trust and it would have to be declared to the CRA, starting this year.
- infinite8s 3y ago
  And it requires a different return that needs to be filed a month earlier.
singleshot_ 3y ago
What I worry about is that some jerk with a model of my voice has been helping my parents through this process for the last couple of years.
suzzer99 3y ago
> We were all shocked he fell for this but then realized the techniques that they use prey upon individuals with inability to deal with stress or trigger anxiety/panic causing them to act irrationally. It's a good thing politicians and politcal propaganda outlets don't make use of this. :/

by animex 3y ago

bombcar 3y ago

Setting the phone to not ring for unknown numbers is also powerful, but to make it work best you need a way to be able to "add" numbers remotely. I wish it was more intelligent; I'd love to tell it what area codes to permit; the advantage of having a phone from half way around the country is that I only care about a few area codes and the scammers don't know which ones those are.

ryandrake 3y ago
Sadly, area codes are no longer a meaningful signal of anything. My family has three cell phones and one VOIP number; and those use four different area codes, hundreds of miles apart.
- bombcar 3y ago
  It's a signal that a call is a scam - 99.99999% of calls to me from the area code of my phone number (and surrounding area codes) are worthless scam calls, because of https://xkcd.com/1129/ https://xkcd.com/1129/ I'd love to ignore all calls from unknown numbers EXCEPT the actual area code I reside in, which they don't know. Then calls from schools, doctors, etc might actually get through. As it is, those go to voicemail and I get them eventually.
  - acheron 3y ago
    His year is off -- my area code is where I lived in 2002-03 and specifically not in 2005, but yeah. I blocked all that area code except for a couple specific numbers.
  - dmitrygr 3y ago
    WideProtect on iOS can get you most of the way there: "block all phone numbers in the following area codes except those in my contacts book"
  - arcanemachiner 3y ago
    I regularly get scam calls that spoof my area code. Hell, my number is even commonly spoofed! Every few months, I get a call from someone, then I get to explain to them that scammers can spoof phone numbers.
    - petsfed 3y ago
      I got threatened with violence, while I was watching my first born child sleep, hours after her birth, by someone who was convinced I'd spent the previous hours repeatedly calling his girlfriend. He was not willing to listen to reason.
  - idontwantthis 3y ago
    I thought that would work for me, and I got a local number before moving across the country. Somehow I’m getting spam calls from where I actually live now, and not from my phone’s area code. No idea how that happens. I haven’t gotten a single spam call from the area code.

ryandrake 3y ago

> The sophistication and technology being used is also becoming problematic in detecting these scenarios even for highly aware/technical folk. This kind of worries me too, but I think we can still defend almost 100% by just following rule #1: “Do not send money in response to anyone contacting you unsolicited, either over the phone, email, SMS, social media, etc.” You can get a lot of mileage from just that. There is never a case where such contact is not a scam or spam. If it’s someone you know or already do business with, use rule #2: hang up, wait an hour, and call them back using a number you know to be correct.

boomboomsubban 3y ago
>There is never a case where such contact is not a scam or spam. Bail?
- ryandrake 3y ago
  I edited my comment to clarify Rule #2: hang up, wait some time, then call back on the known correct number.
  - boomboomsubban 3y ago
    If they're in jail, that's not going to work.
    - aidenn0 3y ago
      You can lookup the number of the jail they are supposedly in. There was a scam attempt against me that spoofed the caller-id to look like the county sheriff; scammer would not agree to me calling them back on that (or any other) number for the sheriff.
    - AnIrishDuck 3y ago
      Um, yes it will? You pay the court clerk [1]. You either pay in person, or possibly online depending on the jurisdiction. If you aren't paying in person, you'll need to contact them directly anyway, and their contact info should be easy to verify. It's not like they're going to be sitting next to the detained party on the phone with a bitcoin deposit address. 1. https://legalaidnyc.org/get-help/bail-incarceration/what-you-need-to-know-about-bail/ https://legalaidnyc.org/get-help/bail-incarceration/what-you...

wolpoli 3y ago

> I have legal financial control over mom's estate A note to anyone in Canada reading this: This would be considered a bare trust and it would have to be declared to the CRA, starting this year.

infinite8s 3y ago
And it requires a different return that needs to be filed a month earlier.

singleshot_ 3y ago

What I worry about is that some jerk with a model of my voice has been helping my parents through this process for the last couple of years.

suzzer99 3y ago

> We were all shocked he fell for this but then realized the techniques that they use prey upon individuals with inability to deal with stress or trigger anxiety/panic causing them to act irrationally. It's a good thing politicians and politcal propaganda outlets don't make use of this. :/