It seems scammers lurk around every corner, every fourth or fifth phone call, and every other e-mail.
They keep coming. Because every once in a while, they win.
Often, our seniors are the victims.
High-pressure tactics urge potential victims to act immediately, and can lead to the loss of hundreds, or thousands of dollars.
The Chatham-Kent police recently held an anti-scam seminar for seniors at the Chatham Retirement Resort. Special constables advised those present to “assume it’s a scam” when they receive unexpected calls demanding money.
A scary scam is when a senior is told a grandchild is in jail and needs cash immediately for bail. It tugs one’s heartstrings.
But it is a scam. If you get such a call, do not agree, and call police immediately.
Skepticism is a weapon. Use it.
Even at this newspaper, a place where we’d like to think we have very skeptical eyes, people try to scam us.
From bogus e-mails claiming an individual tried to pay us on our website (something we do not as of yet offer), to phone calls that our social security number or VISA account has been compromised, or the Canada Revenue Agency is about to sic the RCMP on us, we see and hear them almost daily.
Need we even mention attempts to get us to click on phishing e-mails that could put corrupt files on our computers, or advertising requests from overseas so-called marketing operations?
If you despise scammers as much as we do –and we hope you do – but want a laugh, we urge you to take the time to visit YouTuber Mark Rober’s content online. The former NASA scientist and Apple computer engineer has doled out payback to porch pirates, for example, but also delivered chaos to overseas scam centres, who prey on people around the globe, including here in Canada, to steal your money.
More importantly, he shone a very bright global light on these operations, resulting in several being shut down, with arrests made.
Visit youtu.be/xsLJZyih3Ac and enjoy the payback.
