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Cybersecurity and Fraud Webinar

Preventing Elder Abuse

Each year, elders are subjected to hundreds of thousands of scams, cons, and other types of financial abuse. These scams are estimated to lose seniors up to $30 billion dollars per year of their hard-earned wealth and financial assets. The worst part? Yes, this abuse can be by fraudsters or con artists, but it can also come from family members or close friends.

There are ways to prevent this abuse so your family member or loved one doesn’t have to be a victim. Keep reading to learn about some common scams so that you can identify them and help your loved ones avoid them in the future.

• Catfishing Scam

  • As elders turn more to online services and social media, scam artists make connections and endear themselves as friends to the elderly. This often leads to the scammer asking for money for an emergency like a flight back to the United States.

• Telemarketing or Mail Fraud

  • This scam involves taking advantage of the elderly to sell goods that may never arrive and manipulates older age demographics who make purchases over the phone more often than other age groups.

• Phishing Scam

  • This scam involves using fake emails, calls, or texts to steal personal information. The scammer will often send the elder an email masquerading as their bank. The fake email will often ask the person to update their information. This is used to steal their identity and account information.

• Tax Scams

  • This scam is where a fraudster calls the elderly to inform them that they are past due on taxes and that they will be arrested if an amount is not paid immediately. Often, they ask for the amount to be paid using gift cards or other means that are hard to trace.

• Social Security Spoofing

  • Scammers contact the elderly and claim that the victim’s social security number has been compromised. They ask the victim to confirm the number or risk the possibility it will be seized or locked down. These scams often involve caller ID spoofing and may appear that the Social Security Administration is calling direct.

How you can recognize potential signs of elder abuse:

• Financial Changes

  • This could be checks that are missing or check copies that include suspicious signatures

  • Changes on documents or newly executed legal documents like Power of Attorney (POAs), wills, or trusts

  • Unusual or large withdrawals that are out of character or that the older person can’t explain

  • Changes in account beneficiaries or authorized signers

• Social Changes

  • Missing property

  • Entry forms or prizes from supposed contests

  • Social isolation that is out of character

What to do once you recognize potential elder abuse?

• Contact their bank or credit union. You may not be able to get information about the accounts or transactions unless you’re a signer, POA, or conservator but letting their financial institution become aware of a potential problem is beneficial. Financial employees are trained to recognize potential elder abuse and can help prevent or minimize loss. They can make note of suspicious activity and report it to the appropriate authorities.

• Contact Adult Protective Services. This government-affiliated agency is charged with investigating elder abuse reports. To find your state APS office, visit the National Center on Elder Abuse's website at ncea.acl.gov.

• Alert law enforcement. Contact the police or local sheriff’s office in the victim or loved one’s area.

In addition, to prevent these crimes from happening, Consumerfinance.gov has a great checklist. Use it for yourself or help your family to decide what’s right for their protection.

Resources

Do Yourself a Favor: Be Crime Smart.

New Mexico

Scams and Fraud (nmag.gov)

Across the USA

Scams and Safety — FBI

Charity Navigator

Charity Navigator - Your Guide To Intelligent Giving | Home

Credit Score and Credit Reporting

1. Get your free score and more - Credit Karma

2. Check Your Free Credit Report & FICO® Score - Experian

Romance Fraud Scams

What is a Romance Scam?

Romance scams target victims who may be emotionally vulnerable to companionship and friendship. The goal of the criminal(s) perpetrating the crime is to get the victim to send them funds, which they claim are for a wide range of necessities such as travel, medical care, or a business opportunity. 

How Does It Happen?

The fraudster, who is often located internationally, portrays themselves as American and will contact the victim through social media networks, online forums, or dating sites. After making contact, the fraudster will attempt to develop a deeper relationship with the victim.

Who is Targeted?

While men can be targets, the victims of romance scams tend to be women over the age of 50. The criminals tend to target widows, retirees, divorcees, or single women. Very often, victims are emotionally vulnerable.

Romance scams are emotionally devastating crimes that impact victims far beyond monetary damages. 

BE OBSERVANT!

While the fraudster may attempt to quickly deepen a relationship, it can also develop over months as the fraudster works to build the victim’s trust. At some point in the “relationship”, the fraudster will make a financial request. Any number of reasons may be used, but the fraudster will claim to need the money for...

• Funds to cover the cost of traveling to see the victim

• Emergency medical expenses for the fraudster or a family member — typically a child

• A business opportunity that will allow them to live together comfortably

In the beginning, the amount of money requested will often be small, but increases as the fraudster become more and more successful in building the “relationship” and tricking the victim.

There were almost 15,000 complaints categorized as romance scams/confidence fraud. reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Compliant Center (IC3) in 2016, with the victims suffering over $230M in losses.

If you believe you may be a victim of a romance scam, please contact your local authority.

Smishing

“Smishing” is the New Phishing

Look out — there’s a new scam in town! “Smishing” is a scam format that has recently encountered a boost in scammer popularity, and it’s surprisingly sneaky. Keep reading to learn more about smishing and how to keep your information safe!

What is smishing?

Smishing is similar to phishing, but the scam is accomplished through SMS messaging rather than emails. We all know to look out for suspicious emails, but we aren’t used to looking out for spam texts. And some of these texts can look very official.

Scammers will often make these spam texts look like they are from your bank or credit union’s text alert system. Sometimes, these fake texts will warn you that your account has been locked or that you have won a giveaway — and all you have to do to fix your account issue or claim your prize is to click a link in the text. This link will actually take users to a malicious phishing page that is used to steal your information.

Sounds simple to spot right? But here’s the thing: so many people fall for this scam. Nowadays, we’re used to text alerts or receiving links on our phones that we rarely think twice about clicking them, especially when the number looks official. Plus, when we think there is an issue with our account, we want to fix it as soon as possible, causing us to tap on a link without much thought.

How to avoid this scam?

The simplest way is to avoid clicking links that you receive through a text message, even when they look official. If you receive a text alert from someone that looks like your financial institution claiming there is an issue with your account, we recommend the following:

• Visit your bank or credit union in person OR look up the official phone number on their website

  • Do NOT use the phone number that the text was sent from. Many scammers can “spoof” phone numbers, making them appear like real customer service numbers

• Explain the text alert you received to your financial institution’s representative and ask them to verify if they sent the message

• Never exchange any personal information such as your Social Security Number, credit card number, security question answers, or account number through a text message to an unknown recipient

Spread the word!

Now that you know what smishing is, make sure your friends and family also know how to stay protected and spot this scam by sending them this article! Stay safe out there, and always remember that you can come to ZIA for help!

 Sources:

https://cyware.com/news/smishing-and-vishing-whats-the-difference-between-them-4f55d408/

https://www.wpxi.com/news/local/officials-warn-new-phishing-scam-get-bank-information/Z55R6ZMXLZEYROGU2JCSHP4VA4/

Tips to Prevent Fraud

• Don’t give personally identifiable information via email, text, or over the phone to an unknown person or organization

  • SSN

  • DOB

  • Driver’s License Information

  • Children’s names and personal information

  • Account number

  • Routing number

  • Debit or credit card information

    1. Card number

    2. 3-digit security code on the back of your card

    3. PIN

  • Code word or account password

  • Online account username

• Set up notifications on your credit card and online banking

• Check your account daily

• Check your credit score and credit report frequently

  1. Get your free score and more - Credit Karma

  2. Check Your Free Credit Report & FICO® Score - Experian

• When in doubt call the customer service number on the back of your debit or credit card

• Verify charities before giving or donating

  1. Charity Navigator - Your Guide To Intelligent Giving | Home
     

Unwanted Charges

When was the last time you scanned your credit card statement or cellphone bill for extra charges? If you’re like most consumers, you may not take the time on a regular basis. But small, unwanted charges add up if you’re not careful. For instance, many companies offer free trials that require you to enter your credit card information, and then you subsequently get charged if you don’t cancel the service at the end of the trial. A phantom charge can occur when you’re charged for a product or service you don’t and didn’t know you agreed to buy. There are also zombie grey charges, in which you continue getting charged for a membership or other service after you’ve canceled it. But there are a few things you can do to protect yourself. Take action to prevent grey charges by doing the following:

• Read the fine print. It’s tempting to sign up for a free trial subscription or test an online dating site before paying a monthly subscription. But unless you’re vigilant about canceling the subscription before it auto-renews, you could wind up paying for it anyway.’

• Monitor your statements. If you don’t check your statements, you could be paying grey charges for months before realizing anything is wrong.

• Pay with credit. If a gym or other service wants to set up a recurring payment, try to use your credit card. If there is an issue with a credit card payment, you can dispute it and the money hasn’t left your hands. Debit cards do not offer the same dispute process and the money immediately leaves your account.