{"id":2301,"date":"2016-11-22T21:59:00","date_gmt":"2016-11-22T21:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/preying_on_the_vulnerable\/"},"modified":"2020-10-16T12:27:40","modified_gmt":"2020-10-16T12:27:40","slug":"preying_on_the_vulnerable","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/preying_on_the_vulnerable\/","title":{"rendered":"Preying on the vulnerable &#8211; National Consumers League"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- content_before_flip_start --><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" style=\"float: left; border: 1px solid black; margin: 5px;\" src=\"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/cheniahd_92.jpg\" alt=\"cheniahd_92.jpg\" width=\"92 px\" height=\"92 px\" \/>Earlier this November, NCL held a meeting with our Alliance Against Fraud coalition. We had presenters from the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) representing the government and AARP representing advocacy interests. If Frank Abagnale Jr. of <em>Catch Me If You Can, <\/em>and AARP&#8217;s newest spokesperson,<em>\u00a0<\/em>taught us anything, it\u2019s that scammers know their targets and their sights are almost always set on the most vulnerable consumers. Scammers also work together by distributing \u201csucker lists\u201d amongst themselves that keep victims at the mercy of scammers.<!-- content_before_flip_end -->As AARP can attest, older Americans are frequent scam victims. Perhaps you\u2019ve heard about the \u201cgrandparent scam.\u201d In grandparent scam scenarios, fraudsters claim to be calling on behalf of a grandchild asking for funds to bail themselves or another loved one out of jail or out of some trouble. It was discussed that some scammers actually monitor obituaries of grandparents to find the information of a grandchild to use that name when making the call to the surviving grandparent.<\/p>\n<p>They convince the grandparent that their loved one needs their money and direct the victim to a store to load money onto a gift card. Once the codes on that card are sent to the scammer, there is no turning back, the money is gone.<\/p>\n<p>A new trend revealed at the meeting was that scammers are increasingly turning to iTunes, Target, and Amazon gift cards as payment methods. These cards, unlike credit or debit cards, don\u2019t offer robust anti-fraud protection. Even wire transfer services like Western Union and MoneyGram\u2013which have historically been a favored payment method amongst fraudsters\u2013now have more protective anti-fraud protection protocols. But, as we&#8217;ve seen, as soon as one tactic starts to fail, scammers will undoubtedly find a new way to take advantage of victims.<\/p>\n<p>In an interview with CBS News\u2019 Carter Evans, a former scammer noted that elderly people are more \u201cgullible, accessible, more likely to get emotionally invested and likely to do anything for their grandchildren.\u201d It should also be noted that the strength of the bond between grandchild and grandparent will sometimes facilitate the willingness of the grandparent to not involve the child\u2019s parents. We can keep older Americans and immigrants safe from scams that exploit them. NCL\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fraud.org\">Fraud.org website<\/a> and AARP\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.aarp.org\/money\/scams-fraud\/fraud-watch-network\/\">Fraud Watch Network<\/a> offer tips and resources for detecting and avoiding scams. For victims or family members of fraud victims, we suggest filing a complaint at Fraud.org or with the Federal Trade Commission at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ftc.gov\">www.ftc.gov<\/a> or by phone at 1-877-382-4357.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Earlier this November, NCL held a meeting with our Alliance Against Fraud coalition. We had presenters from the Federal Trade Commission (FCC) representing the government and AARP representing advocacy interests. [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13791,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":"[]","_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[314,18,22],"tags":[374,357,372,373,375],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2301"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5936,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2301\/revisions\/5936"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13791"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nclnet.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}