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i am a nigerian prince with a large inheritance ....... you know the drill.
the best one is a marketing company calls and asks you to test and review some products.
they send you a check for much more then what they ask you to buy so you can go out and buy what needs to be tested and reviewed over a 2 week time frame.
they give you a bunch of stuff to buy and ask you to refund them what you didn't spend.
so you depost the check , charge the goods and as instructed send them back the un-used money.
by the time the check bounces they gave you they are long gone and you are out the money you refunded them and have all these charges on your credit cards for the stuff you bought.
the best one is a marketing company calls and asks you to test and review some products.
they send you a check for much more then what they ask you to buy so you can go out and buy what needs to be tested and reviewed over a 2 week time frame.
they give you a bunch of stuff to buy and ask you to refund them what you didn't spend.
so you depost the check , charge the goods and as instructed send them back the un-used money.
by the time the check bounces they gave you they are long gone and you are out the money you refunded them and have all these charges on your credit cards for the stuff you bought.
My grandmother (99 when she passed last year) wasn't susceptible to online scams because she only used her computer to play solitaire.
However, she was definitely susceptible to phone scams and door-to-door scams. She bought a Kirby vacuum with all the bells & whistles because she felt bad for the guy that came to her door.
She bought junk from "charities" that called her all the time. There was one group out of Kentucky that was particularly onerous, and I called them many times to get my grandmother off their call list. Well, one day they called while I was helping her pack up her house to move closer to family. I answered the phone and they asked for her. I asked who was calling and they said it was [whatever the group was] with an offer for my grandmother. I told the caller that I had asked for her to be removed from the list, and they claimed she had called back to be put on (this was a lie). When I told them she was moving into assisted living and that the number they were calling was being disconnected, the guy decided that he didn't want to SELL anything, but in fact my grandmother OWED them a few hundred dollars.
There's probably a modern version of "net nanny" that might allow you to block some of the scam sites.
I used Net Nanny a few years ago for one senior back in Ohio who needed to be blocked from porn sites and the like (it was a shared computer in a nursing home - had it been a private computer, I would've refused).
Another senior had her c.c. cards locked up. She was only allowed small amounts of cash ($5 or less). That didn't go over well, either, but it kept her from ordering things online without supervision.
I'm sorry that you're in this position. They can be very grouchy when they don't get their way, and I generally tried not to get involved with those aspects.
Your friend is lucky that you're looking out for him...too bad he's so stubborn!
Is there any way that you can alert his bank that he's a sucker when it comes to scams? With existing privacy laws, this might not be possible, but I've read of a number of situations where the vigilance of the bank saved its customer from the clutches of a scammer.
Your friend is lucky that you're looking out for him...too bad he's so stubborn!
Is there any way that you can alert his bank that he's a sucker when it comes to scams? With existing privacy laws, this might not be possible, but I've read of a number of situations where the vigilance of the bank saved its customer from the clutches of a scammer.
I wouldn't know how to go about that. We both use the same bank, but I don't know what I'd tell them, or if it would do any good.
Does this gentleman have children or grandchildren who might be interested in what is going on? Get in touch with them and explain to them how susceptible he is to scams targeting seniors. Together you can convince him to have one of you added to his checking account so you get access to statements. You could also have a limit put on any check issued from that account.
When my mother was ill and I was having her tested for dementia i went to the bank with her a few times and asked to speak to the manager. I was simply letting the bank see that I was her daughter and was concerned about her finances and that my mother was trusting me. Before I could have her declared mentally incompetent I asked the bank manager to please make a note to at least call me if she ever came in the bank without me to make a withdrawal or if she wrote a check for more than $75.
They were happy to oblige and in fact did once call when mother wrote a check to a legitimate charity. I let it go through.
After she was declared incompetent I took over all her finances but discovered i was too late by a few years and she had been scammed but was too embarrassed to tell me about it.
Her dementia became evident with issues about money. She would go back to the table to pocket any tips me or and my husband left. She wouldn't sign or date any checks she sent or fill in the written part for amount and they were being sent back to her all the time (she lived with us).
But the kicker came when she was still living on her own. One day I went to visit her and she met me at the door with a termination notice for all her utilities. Up till then she had never talked to me about money. I asked to look at her check book and she statements and she had $35,000 in her checking account! "I had a CD come due and I didn't know what to do with it".
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See by your profile that you are unmarried, so? 
