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I’ll go with the obvious: scam phone calls and “your computer is borked, call 1-800-PAY-SCAMMER to fix it”. There are a lot more boomer generation people out t
by mattbrewsbytes 2y ago
I’ll go with the obvious: scam phone calls and “your computer is borked, call 1-800-PAY-SCAMMER to fix it”.
There are a lot more boomer generation people out there that fall for this every day than complicated or highly technical scams. There should be PSA’s shown during Jeopardy! and Wheel Of Fortune commercial breaks that simply state: “The IRS will never call you. Neither will the USPS. Microsoft won’t either. They won’t text either. If you get something that says your computer is hacked and to call that is also a SCAM. Turn it off immediately and take it to a local professional.”
Edit to add: I know all of us in here will end up being the “local professional”, be nice and help the elderly.
- everforward 2y agoI always follow the more general adage of “never provide information to people who reach out to you”; call back to a known-good number before handing over info. I do feel like a PSA would be a good measure; we lose enough to fraud that it may pay for itself. I don’t think we’ll see one, though. That would be a tacit admission that the government has completely lost control of a key communication technology.