Scammers are relentless and they are targeting seniors

by Dan Holland

As the level of sophistication increases for any number of frauds and scams, especially those targeting seniors, the public needs to be more aware than ever of the most common frauds in use, according to Detective Sgt. Ryan Fewell of the Broadview Heights Police Department.

“What many of these scams have in common is that they create a sense of urgency by spiking the emotions,” said Fewell. “It’s a scenario where they convince the person that they have to act immediately or else something terrible is going to happen, or it may be that something great is going to happen, like a lottery scam.”

A commonly used approach, known as an “impostor scam,” involves sending phone messages or emails falsely claiming to be from well-known companies, such as Amazon, Apple, Microsoft and others. Another approach tries to convince the victim that a loved one has recently been arrested or was in a motor vehicle accident and needs money immediately.

According to Fewell, the method of payment requested is often through Venmo, cash apps or Apple gift cards. “They use a lot of these online payment methods so there isn’t a bank account or real name associated with it,” he explained. “Sometimes, with Venmo or cash apps, we are able to subpoena information, but a lot of times, that initial person they send the money to is also being scammed.”

“When we subpoena the person, we may find that he’s another elderly individual who has been a victim of a scam himself,” he continued. “Those are the phishing scams, where they’ll say they were told if they process a $500 payment, then they can keep $100, and they create these layers that are very sophisticated.” 

Another scam involves someone claiming to be with the IRS or a law firm.

“Sometimes with the fear-based scams, they may say it’s the IRS calling or a law firm calling, and that the person is being sued or audited, and it spikes that emotion where they think they’re in trouble,” said Fewell. “But I can tell people firsthand that the IRS does not take Apple gift cards as payment, so that’s a big tip off.”

Jeff Kitzler, who owns Jeff’s Computer Consulting & Repair in Broadview Heights, said he receives three-to-four calls every week regarding online scams. “They’ll send messages saying that your Netflix subscription has expired, or with Amazon or UPS, they’ll say there’s a package waiting for you,” he explained. “They pick very big companies that mostly everyone uses today. People get an email and think that they need to update their credit card information.”

One tip Kitzler gives regarding emails is to hover one’s mouse over the “from” section of an email to see who is listed as the sender. “If the domain isn’t from Amazon.com or Netflix.com, but from some other domain, that’s a red flag that this isn’t who is reaching out to you,” he said. 

Scammers will also call claiming to represent a popular computer antivirus program and will request access to a person’s computer to install the program. Kitzler noted that no legitimate company would ask to do that.

Another common scam involves an individual clicking on a link and receiving a pop-up screen message indicating that his or her computer has been infected with a virus that will urge the person to call a certain phone number and not turn the computer off.

“It will just have a phone number saying you’re locked and that you need to call that number,” he explained. “When they tell you to call a number and not to turn off your computer, turn your computer off immediately and see if it comes back up again.”

He also recommended clearing those messages out of one’s email history.

“Unfortunately, it tends to be seniors who they tend to target these days,” said Kitzler. “Younger people tend to be a little more savvy with these things, but someone will call a senior, and right away, they think they’re talking with Microsoft or some other company.”

Fewell and Kitzler both said to be aware of scams on popular social media sites and to limit the amount of personal information listed on Facebook and other popular sites.

“A lot of times, people will put their phone number or pictures of their house address on there. Each thing can be a little piece of information, and they can eventually put all of those pieces together,” said Fewell.

“It’s very easy for someone to look up someone’s profile on Facebook, find out who their relatives and friends are, where they work, and to use that information to try to scam them out of money,” said Kitzler. “So, it’s important not to give out too much of that information.”

Fewell also said to be cautious when buying a product through online market places and community groups listed on social media sites. 

“Sometimes, they’ll request a deposit, and once the deposit is sent through Venmo, they’ll say the deposit didn’t go through, and that the person needs to send another deposit to a different Venmo account,” he explained. 

The fraudulent methods employed change continually to stay one step ahead of law enforcement, added Fewell.“I wish these scammers would use their talents for good, because a lot of them are so well thought out,” he said. “It’s difficult on our end, because a lot of times, by the time people report it and realize it as fraud, they think it’s as easy as telling us which phone number they sent it to. But these scammers are very tech-savvy and use internet-based phone lines so that it doesn’t come back to them. They’re constantly changing the methods to stay ahead of us.”