<p>Another danger to watch out for is the caller who says, someone else has messed with your computer…go turn on your computer and I’ll help you fix it. My mom has gotten repeated calls with people (with Asian accents) urging, demanding that she turn on her computer so they can “help” her. They get quite belligerent considering that they purport to be helping. </p>
<p>The first time, she drove the guy so crazy saying she couldn’t understand what he was saying that he finally hung up. The second time, she hung up right away. </p>
<p>I told her to always hang up right away…don’t engage with them…don’t get drawn into their BS. Sometimes the more you listen the more persuasive they can be and that’s how they hook you. </p>
The IRS loves paper. When they have an issue with us, they send us paper to warn that they are going to be sending MORE paper. When they have no news, they send us paper to that effect. One year, they sent 3 letters saying they had not yet resolved the question at hand. If they spent less time updating us that they had made no progress, they might have actually made some progress.</p>
<p>My grandmother got this call once, supposedly from my brother. Thankfully she could tell something was fishy so she asked the caller when his birthday was, and the scammer hung up.</p>
<p>The University I work for recently sent out a warning about the IRS scam…apparently a few students have been contacted about this. Probably a lot of people targeting college students since they don’t have a lot of knowledge about taxes, and a lot of students file in multiple states.</p>
<p>I tried to get my mother to report her scammers to the local police or to an appropriate state agency, but she refused. She didn’t want her name appearing in the police beat column in the local paper. And of course, she felt like an idiot afterwards. I did call the number they gave her and yelled at the guy who answered the phone. I also did a reverse directory on it, and it turned out to be a temporary cell number purchased in Canada. I emailed them with the information that the number was being used to commit fraud in the US, but never got a reply.</p>
<p>If my wife or I get a call from any financial, govt, commercial, medical, whatever… UNSOLICITED source, the call is terminated by us immediately. If call is from a potentially known source (eg credit card inquiring about unusual spending pattern), we call number on back of card, or number of source that we know to be accurate.</p>
<p>When people report to the police, usually their names can be kept confidential and not reported to media but help raise alert so others may not be victims. </p>
<p>Our family has always had code words but this is a good reminder to make sure the grandparents know them also.
If you do code words make sure they’re totally off-the-wall that they aren’t easily guessed and easily memorable to your family at the same time.</p>
I also did a reverse directory on it, and it turned out to be a temporary cell number purchased in Canada. I emailed them with the information that the number was being used to commit fraud in the US, but never got a reply.</p>