Be careful!
About last year or so, my mom had gotten a call from my aunt talking about how the police station had called her and described how my dad was arrested and needed to pay for an ankle monitor in order to be released or be detained until his court date of December that year. The callers demanded hundreds of dollars to be paid via Zelle or other online payment methods, claiming this was to make paying more “accessible”. It was between paying them or having my dad spend the holidays in prison.
Immediately, there were a few red flags from the call that made us pause.
- Payment through Zelle, Paypal, crypto
- The poor quality of the call (lots of background noise)
- The aggressive pressuring
- The badge number was not valid
- My aunt and dad were not on speaking terms
- The phone number was a google number
I stepped in as my mom’s interpreter when the caller began getting aggressive. I could tell this was suspicious and called them out, leading to an intense argument with the person on the other end. Instantly, they berated me and used the urgency tactic on me, but when it didn’t work, he switched to his “boss” who attempted to position himself as more understanding as a last attempt to get money from us. I hung up after hearing his poor attempts at appealing to my emotions.
We later found out that this was a common scam where scammers will find records of recently released convicts and target their family members.
What to do?
- Stay calm, you’re more vulnerable when afraid
- Stay in touch with your family members
- Know that an officer would never ask for peer to peer payment or crypto
- Recognize common tactics
- emotional appeals
- urgency (i.e. deadlines or legal consequences)
The list would be good for any scam over the phone, you did good as her interpreter. Teaching this to your family and being in touch with people who are vulnerable is a great idea.
I appreciate your positive words! Some of the most vulnerable people to online scams and hoaxes are people with limited experience with technology, such as our elderly family members and younger ones too. I’d also add on and say that it’s equally as important, if not more, to provide a safe space and support them if they do fall victim to a scam. The consequences are way worse when they are alone with the perpetrators.
This is very informative!!! I will definitely keep this in mind when getting scam calls. Thank goodness you figured it out.
Right! It could have turned out very bad otherwise. If you frequently get scam calls I suggest blocking the numbers and setting up a voicemail in case someone legitamate is attempting to call you. If it’s truly important, they’d leave a message. This is also just a good tip for looking more professional overall.
This is extremely relatable, especially in this day and age. I’m glad you recognized the signs and I definitely agree with the advice you gave to mitigate falling for these common scams.
What has your experience with scams been? I hope my tips will help you navigating those situations going forward. Anyone is at risk of getting scammed, regardless of how smart they are. Scammers are always innovating, so never be afraid to double check any fishy emails or unknown number calls!
This has such valuable information! In this day and age, especially where technology and AI is rapidly improving, knowing signs of being scammed like this is helpful. I’m glad that you were able to figure out that the call wasn’t credible. My dad’s solution to these scams is to troll and waste the scammers time by acting confused and saying we’re not even in Nevada for that matter.
Trolling scammers can definetely be fun and might actually be useful because it takes up the time that they could be using to target someone more vulnerable! I’m glad your family is perceptive enough to differentiate the difference between something deceptive versus credible.
This is an experience a lot of us can find familiarity in. One time I had a run in with a scam I would’ve absolutely fallen for had it not been for my mother and sister steering me away from it. After a package I had ordered being lost in the mail in real life, I coincidentally received a SMS requesting me to click the link to recover a lost package. However, this link had nothing to do with the package I had yet to receive in the reality, and was a complete sham. My mom pointed out the strange form of the URL in the link and the even stranger area code of the number I was contacted by! She saved me from completely comprising my personal data! Even younger individuals can become victims of scams! You are spreading important awareness.
I’ve also heard of this scam before! It’s getting super common lately, but a good way to watch out for them is the number or ID. I typically see irrelevant emails that have nothing to the with the package carrier. I’m thankful you had family that had your back and prevented something that could’ve resulted in more than just a lost package. Still unfortunate that you never recieved it though…