I can tell I’m getting older because I’m getting a lot of scam phone calls that target the elderly.
One call I get a lot is a computer interactive call that can seem like you’re talking to a person if you're not paying much attention, and I’m rarely paying much attention. (Is that part of getting old? Nah, I’ve always been that way.)
The call is trying to get me to buy some kind of hearing aid. I’m being told that someone in my household is becoming hard of hearing and could really benefit from this item. Depending on what you say the computer will ask a question that seems somewhat appropriate.
I’ve started just yelling “WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU” into the phone over and over until they hang up or I get tired of it.
Another call I’ve been getting is like the one below in the video of a police captain messing with phone scammers. My calls come from guys who they tell me they are from Hewlett Packard and that my computer has been compromised.
They’ll even give me a phone number I can call them back on, that’s how legit they are. They are trying to help save me from whoever has infected my computer and is using it for nefarious purposes to hack other people.
These are some very insistent scammers. No disrespect intended, but I suspect they are guys from New Jersey using really bad fake Indian accents. I haven’t heard this type of obnoxious hard sell except from my home warranty company Choice, which is based in NJ.
The way I was able to get rid of these scammers was that I finally asked “How do you know I’m not the one doing the hacking?” There was silence for a moment and then they hung up. Haven’t called back since.
The other recent scam I got was by email and it was an attempt at blackmail. Apparently someone has video of me watching porn on my computer. Actively watching I guess you could say. I was asked to transfer money to some account or that video would be shared with everyone.
I took a half a second to wonder what that video might look like but mostly I laughed because I keep a thick sticker over the camera on my computer at all times. Someone told me to do that with my first computer and I’ve done it ever since. Hey, even Zuckerberg does it.
Have you gotten any good scam calls lately?