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So I ask this question because of my mother specifically. She is retired and widowed. But she does not live alone. My brother and her mother both live with her. But she is constantly falling prey to telephone solicitors.
She answers every phone call. She talks to everyone who calls. And she seems to buy almost everything any of these phone solicitors try to sell her. She's bought cruises (that she has no intention of using) vitamin supplements, "cures" for diabetes, etc.
When I ask why she bought these things she says it was the only way to get them off the phone.
I can't understand why she would not simply hang up the phone. Is it just politeness from a different generation ?
I put her on the Do Not Call List and I've told her to not answer the phone if she doesn't recognize the number. I've also told her she can just hang up the phone.
Is this an issue other Retiree's have as well ... either themselves, a spouse or parent/sibling ?
Location: East of Seattle since 1992, 615' Elevation, Zone 8b - originally from SF Bay Area
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It can help to have an unlisted number, as we did with my mother-in-law at about age 82. It costs a little more but worth it. Scammers and telemarketers know that the elderly are more likely to fall for their line, so they are preyed upon. They are also well aware of zip codes with relation to incomes, so they will target elderly in affluent areas. I don't think the politeness has anything to do with the generation, but is just how she is. My late father in law, for example, got the same "wrong number" call 3 days in a row asking for some woman he'd never heard of. The 4th time they called, he said "We done buried her this morning."
my mom gets these calls from time to time -- so do I. She generally listens and then just tells the caller 'will think about it' or 'I am not interested'. I don't think it is an age or generational thing. Some people say yes, some say no. If we all said 'no' the calls would stop
Wow, I was lucky, again...my mom was never a sucker for phone calls...she'd tell a person no on the phone in a heart beat.
BUT.....she was fooled by fake check MAILINGS a couple of times...the fake check where they send YOU a check for some nominal amount...5, 10..25.00 or whatever....and if you endorse it AND check a box you've purchased something or signed up for some expensive insurance. LUCKILY, with her dementia...she'd forget to MAIL them.
I'd come visit and once a year or so, I'd see the envelop, open it and see that the check was endorsed, BUT didn't check the small box and certainly didn't right her credit card number on it for monthly charges for whatever the hell they were selling or soliciting for. Clearly she thought it was a check for her.
She was also a big believer in having insurance (when she was younger)...and I didn't notice years ago when I started looking at her finances....that she had some insurance for SOMETHING...that was 25.00 a month charged to her CC. It was something through a major retailer. I don't even remember WHAT kind of insurance it was...maybe travel insurance...I called and had that s#!t cancelled. HOW LONG had it been being charged...A YEAR AND A HALF! Looking back, examples like these...are what made me realize..."OK, gotta start taking this over, now."
Older adults are more likely than younger ones to perceive dishonest faces as trustworthy, according to a new study of social judgments and brain activity. The findings may help explain why older people are more likely to fall victim to fraud.
Up to 80% of scam victims are over 65, according to the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
...
The functional MRI scans revealed significant differences in brain activity between the age groups. An area known as the anterior insula, which is associated with “gut feelings,” became more active in the younger subjects at the sight of an untrustworthy face. Older subjects, however, showed little to no activation in this area.
....
Misplaced trust can have severe consequences for older adults, especially when it comes to financial fraud. “Older adults seem to be particularly vulnerable to interpersonal solicitations, and their reduced sensitivity to cues related to trust may partially underlie this vulnerability,”
New research suggests age-related changes in the brain make it harder to detect suspicious body language and other warning signs that people may be untrustworthy.
The study found that older women were nearly twice as likely to be victims of financial exploitation as men, and that roughly one-third of the reports of elder financial abuse analyzed by researchers were perpetrated by family, friends, and neighbors of the victim.
...
Even when there isn’t a question of dementia, a growing body of research suggests that older adults may not make the best financial choices when pressed to make decisions in an unfamiliar setting.
...
In a study of adults ages 19 to 85, Gregory Samanez-Larkin, a Yale University assistant psychology professor, found that older adults are more likely than their younger counterparts to make mistakes when forced to choose investments during a simulated lab trial. But the researchers also found that older adults generally do better when not pressed and they can take advantage of years of experience.
It looks like more studies are needed to address this pervasive problem.
Quote:
One of Samanez-Larkin’s goals is to develop a test that consumers might be able use to evaluate their own, or a family member’s, abilities to make financial decisions
“There needs to be a lot more development on this,” he said. “It’s not an easy task.”
My parents have always felt it was impolite to cut people off on the phone, even solicitors.
My mother is so gullible she believed one scammer who was trying to get her social security number and pretending he was from her bank. Thank God my Dad realized what was going on and said - now wait - how do you know that is really our bank calling?
So it is not necessarily cognitive decline. My parents have always been like this - even 30 years ago.
My elderly friend almost got taken by the Microsoft computer experts scam -- again!
I wrote out her check routing number and credit card numbers to keep by her phone. BUT, I scrambled the last two numbers around. This alerts her bank manager (it's a very small town) to the fact it's someone trying to tap her account that shouldn't be doing it and she cancels the request.
Then my friend 'fesses up that she answered the phone and talked to them. Why? Because she's in an isolated area and the computer is her world. These people call and chit chat for 30 to 45 minutes and they are her best friend. Yes, she's lonesome. Yes, she talks to them. Then they tell her how they just noticed during the call that her computer is so infected and it's going to crash in two hours, but hey, they can take care of that for the low low price of $500.00.
I "think" I finally have her convinced not to talk to them. She says she's answering all unknown calls with "I am on the do not call list. Do not call me again" phrase. We'll see.
These scammers have already sucked about $350 from her last year.
So I ask this question because of my mother specifically. She is retired and widowed. But she does not live alone. My brother and her mother both live with her. But she is constantly falling prey to telephone solicitors.
She answers every phone call. She talks to everyone who calls. And she seems to buy almost everything any of these phone solicitors try to sell her. She's bought cruises (that she has no intention of using) vitamin supplements, "cures" for diabetes, etc.
When I ask why she bought these things she says it was the only way to get them off the phone.
I can't understand why she would not simply hang up the phone. Is it just politeness from a different generation ?
I put her on the Do Not Call List and I've told her to not answer the phone if she doesn't recognize the number. I've also told her she can just hang up the phone.
Is this an issue other Retiree's have as well ... either themselves, a spouse or parent/sibling ?
I"m sure it can not be unique to her.
People who grew up prior to a certain point in history (or grew up later but were sheltered) are a lot less jaded then those of us who did not. That is a blessing and curse. The blessing is, their world view is not dark, and, they tend to be really, really nice people. The downside is, they do poorly in today's shark tank.
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