A threatening call from the IRS. A surprise notification about winning a contest. A grandchild stranded in a foreign country begging for money.
Whether by email, text, or phone call, scammers often target older individuals who may be more likely to fall victim to being swindled.
An estimated 59 million Americans lost money to scammers in 2021, and the average loss was $1,200.
You can’t monitor every minute of your parents’ day. But you can educate yourself, and your parents, about common scams and how to protect against them.
How Most Scams Work
There are four basic types of phone scams:
- Unsolicited calls from someone claiming to work for a government agency, public utility, or major tech firm, such as Microsoft or Apple. Most of these will never actually call people unsolicited; virtually all government agencies and public utilities use written notices, not phone calls.
- Unsolicited calls from charity fundraisers, especially during the holidays and after disasters. These may or may not come from a charity that you or your parent has donated to previously.
- Calls pitching products or services with terms that sound too good to be true. These may be product trials, cash prizes, cheap travel packages, medical devices, pre-approved loans, debt reduction, and low-risk, high-return investments. Calls that are about winning a contest you don’t remember entering are also common.
- An automated sales call from a company you have not authorized to contact you. That’s an…
