My mother was a victim of a scammer today

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

My 76 year old mother got a call today. The caller ID showed an out-of-state area code. The caller said "Grandma?" She answered "yes?" because she has several grandsons. He went on to tell her that he was driving with some people, and they were pulled over and drugs were found in the car, and they were all arrested, but he was innocent and his drug test was negative so he has proof. Then he asked her if she could send him bail money as he is still in jail and needs the money to get out.
She knew it was a scam and told him to call his own mother. He promptly hung up.
Please warn your elderly parents. I had heard about this a couple of years ago. Apparently it is still going on.

[shaggy Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close shaggy]

glad she was sart cookie.

[grest Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close grest]

those scammers will stop at nothing...good for your mom for being assertive and cautious.

[wackymother Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close wackymother]

She wasn't a victim! She knew it was a scam and she didn't fall for it!

We were very concerned that my MIL would fall for a trick like this, partly because she was very hard of hearing and didn't like to admit it. We reminded her every so often that that kind of thing was a scam and she would always get very annoyed at us because she knew. We knew she knew...but one of her friends fell for this scam and lost $3,000.

[easyrider Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close easyrider]

Good for her.

About a month ago while I was researching solar panel incentives my screen locked up. The new screen said that they were Interpol and I was being fined. They wanted me to pay through paypal. I used AVG to get this off my laptop. Then in the next week or so my screen was frozen by the IRS who also had a link to paypal so that I could pay whatever. This time I used AVG and Super anti-spyware. So far , so good.

[bigfrank Administrator Find all posts View Profile Close bigfrank]

Another one is Microsoft is on the phone because there is a virus in your computer. They want you to open up the port so they can get in, What ever you do, Do not do it, I do like to keep these idiots on the phone as long as I can just so they do not call someone else.

[scootr5 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close scootr5]

Another one is Microsoft is on the phone because there is a virus in your computer. They want you to open up the port so they can get in, What ever you do, Do not do it, I do like to keep these idiots on the phone as long as I can just so they do not call someone else.

Yes, I told the last one I was using a mac. He said that's fine, just turn it on. I said, "OK, I'm at work so I'll have to drive home to do that. Hang on". I set the phone down; 25 minutes later he was still on the line....

[jackio Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close jackio]

Good for her.

About a month ago while I was researching solar panel incentives my screen locked up. The new screen said that they were Interpol and I was being fined. They wanted me to pay through paypal. I used AVG to get this off my laptop. Then in the next week or so my screen was frozen by the IRS who also had a link to paypal so that I could pay whatever. This time I used AVG and Super anti-spyware. So far , so good.

I had something that froze my screen saying "you have been infected by malware" and the only way you could get out of that was to pay them. I, too, used AVG (the free one, no less) and it took care of it.

[happymum Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close happymum]

So glad that she recognized the scam.

[Glitter Brunello Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close Glitter Brunello]

This is a sadly common form of elder abuse
Yes, it's a scam, but it somehow seems more evil than most.

[taffy19 Gold Contributor Find all posts View Profile Close taffy19]

Another one is Microsoft is on the phone because there is a virus in your computer. They want you to open up the port so they can get in, What ever you do, Do not do it, I do like to keep these idiots on the phone as long as I can just so they do not call someone else.

This happened to me several times but I knew that it was a scam. Last week, I received a call and supposedly "Microsoft" told me to go in my Dell because they were getting so many error messages from my computer. How do they know that we have a Dell and he gave me two numbers. I went to check it and one number was the correct Dell Service Tag number of the desktop computer but the second number was wrong.

I was suspicious because how could Microsoft have our Dell Service Tag number? He said that he could get the second number by going inside the computer but I told him that I would do it myself and to give me instructions what to do. When he asked me to export a file, I got even more suspicious so I refused to send it and he got his Supervisor on the line but I hung up on him and called Microsoft immediately after this call.

They will NEVER call you so I paid for a service call and they spent two hours on both Dell computers. Since we have been compromised by Anthem, I am almost paranoid now so made a screen shot of what commands I had typed in the black box so far so Microsoft could see what harm I had done already but the real Microsoft guy told me that I was lucky that I hadn't exported a zip file.

He had two cases like mine already that week and one small business man was taken to the cleaners because of it. They are after your passwords so they can go in your accounts.

I had recently read somewhere that it may be employees or ex-employees who are selling this type of information so it may be true. I called Dell up today since I do have a technical support contract with them and the same phony Microsoft guy called back again today! H even said do you remember me?

Dell immediately transferred me to the fraud department and wanted the phone number of the phony Microsoft guy. Since he called me twice on a row last week and I called Microsoft right after and he called again today, it was easy for me to find the number but it had no area code so I double checked on-line in my Verizon call log too and they are the only numbers without an area code and I get many of these phony calls that we all get. Dell is going to investigate it further and will let me know. They are going to check what service calls I have made and who supported me but I haven't made many calls this year.

I am writing all this to warn everyone to be extra careful. The call was $99.00 for one single call or $149.00 for the whole year on all computers with Windows so I chose that. It is support for security only but they will take care of viruses if you pick one up and he cleaned up the registry.