Warning from the Better Business Bureau - BEWARE Of The "Grandma Scam"

What a very sad thing... To take advantage of the elderly like that.

how sickening is that! thanks for the warning

Donna, the elderly are easy targets for these clowns.  You have to wonder how they are able to sleep at night.

Hi Donna,

Seems like there is a new scam every day, especially when it comes to seniors. It's important for us to stay close to our senior friends and relatives as much as we can and discuss issues like this with them routinely.

My own Mom got to the point where she would just hang up on anyone even sounding like a scam. Problem is, these crooks are so darn smooth.

Hi Donna!  OH, that is AWFUL!  Thanks for the 'warning' and I will pass this on.  I think the people who scam the elderly should be tarred and feathered publicly and THEN put in jail--I can't imagine how someone could do that to anyone, muchless an elderly person.

Donna, it's a shame that some people have to take advantage of the elderly. Thanks for the heads up.

Donna, My mother used to spot a scam a mile away.   Now I notice she is so trusting and heard her starting to give her birthdate to someone who called.  I tell her not to give out ANY information--thank you for the heads up on this one.

That's too bad, but good thing you notify the public with articles like this getting the word out.  There are always people looking for a way to take advantage of somebody. 

I volunteered with local law enforcement, banks, attorneys in giving presentations to our local senior community associations on the many different scams that there are out there. One lady in my area was scammed of over $100,000 in a lottery scam. Since my area has over 100 adult communities the banks have trained the tellers to spot these scams. If you haven't heard about the lottery scam it goes like this...the senior receives a letter thet they have won the Swiss, Greek, Nigerian or whatever lottery. They are sent a check for say $10,000, with instructions to deposit it and send back a cashier's check for $5000 to cover the taxes, processing etc. Of course by the time the $10,000 check is returned as a fake, their $5000 is out of the country and unrecoverable.

That is bad enough, but the senior is then so embarrassed and traumatized that they frequently don't report the scam. The hope of "winning" completely erases all good judgement. The bank security department in their attempt to explain to the senior there is no lottery, therefore no winnings, has been reported to corporate for making it difficult for the senior to withdraw the funds. They have no choice but to comply and release the monies.

Another hot subject in my area are unscrupulous contractors. We'll save that for another day.