According to the “2018 DOJ Report on Senior Abuse and Financial Exploitation,” each year an estimated $3 billion is stolen from America’s seniors through a variety of mass mailing, romance, and vendor or contractor scams. They may also fall prey to imposters who claim to represent the IRS, Medicare or Medicaid, or Social Security. Unfortunately, New Canaan is not immune to these scams.
New Canaan Police Chief Leon Krolikowski
Thus far in 2022, our Department investigated 57 fraud complaints (a 128% increase compared to 2021), and some of these frauds targeted seniors. Recently, a senior resident contacted our Department to report being the victim of a tech-support scam (more about these scams below). The resident reported receiving a computer pop-up message about a “hack alert.” The resident clicked on the alert and allowed the fraudster to control the resident’s computer. Subsequently, the resident was told to call an “800” number and spoke with the fraudster. The fraudster told the resident that a suspicious wire was initiated (it wasn’t) from the resident’s bank account to a criminal organization. The fraudster stated that his organization blocked the wire attempt but that the resident needed to send a wire to a “dummy” account to catch the hackers. The resident sent the wire, but soon realized it was a scam. The good news is the resident immediately contacted our Department. Our officers helped recover the wire that the resident sent,…
