I've been aware of these telemarketing cons and scams for years and always tell all the family, esp. the kids and oldsters, DO NOT open emails from people you don't know, esp. file attachments and DO NOT take phone calls from people you don't know.
I tell my mom other than her friends and family, if it's not someone you know, HANG UP!
I also tell them if they aren't sure, just ask the person for details and then CALL ME and I'll help them decide if it's legit or not.
Yes, I've gotten more than a few calls and all but one or two were cons. But I welcome those calls instead of "I just got a $5K charge from someone I don't know..." kinds of calls.
Phone scammers can try to slam your phone with charges if they can trick you into saying YES for certain things. They'll even go as far as telling you the call is recorded for THEY'RE protection which is partly true. They only record the part where they ask you the question when they're about to slam you, to record your YES answer, so the whole thing will be out of context of the call.
Anyway, my family has been warned over and over and over.
With all those warnings and telling them NOT to take those calls, someone slipped up and did it this week.
Someone claiming to be from "MS Security" called one of the oldsters and claimed their computer was hacked. That opening claim made them panic but common sense would've said "How do they know YOUR computer is hacked?" and you hang up. But they freaked out and kept on the phone. The scammers tried to give them instructions to follow to install software and place a CC sale.
Thankfully, they are no longer computer literate enough to follow those instructions from the scammer, got frustrated and told them that one of their kids would have to help and ended the call.
Surpringly, the scammer gave them a number and name to have someone call back! LOL
Best we can tell nothing managed to get installed and they didn't get a credit card either.
Just a warning, go back AGAIN and remind the people you love that THEY ARE A TARGET and if they don't want to be a victim just HANG UP!
That's the real problem is the victims are so embarrassed that they were ripped off they usually don't tell people about these things.
Open discussion is the best way to avoid more people from becoming a victim.
The best way to test them is to get a friend to call and try to get them to do something stupid.
I'm thinking there's a business there somewhere, a human antivirus, a service to call people on a regular basis and test them to make sure they aren't letting people con them on the phone.
Anyway, remind your family is they don't know who's on the phone, HANG UP!
If it's something legit, they'll give their name and number so someone can call them back after verification.
