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NEW YORK (MainStreet) — Scott Sargent, a financial advisor in Newport Beach, Calif., received a typical request from a client: a withdrawal from his brokerage account. The 81-year-old man needed $15,000 to cover taxes -- on his winnings from a Costa Rican lottery. Sargent told Financial Planning magazine that it was only the beginning of a long, sad story.
That is such a well known scam. I first heard of it years ago. Of course people other than seniors can also fall for it. There's a fool born every minute, but seniors may be especially vulnerable as their mental acuity slips and as they disengage from the outside world by no longer reading general publications where periodic warnings of such things appear. I still read the Los Angeles Times daily.
This thread, as a warning about such scams, is one of the good things about the City-Data Retirement Forum.
I am more afraid of putting my money with someone who refuses to let me withdraw it even though I have been certified as competent to attend to my own business by a doctor and an attorney, than I am of losing it in a scam.
Does he have family? and if he does, should they be able to over ride the doctor and attorney? They could certainly, at the very least, get a second opinion.
I thought the picture used with the article was demeaning. The whole thing read like a cheesey advertisement.
On the other hand, may be the government should do a "look back" on people who squander their money and then end up on public aid programs.
The Nigerian scam is also alive and well. A 55 yr old friend of mine who does online dating got a romantic email (complete with sexy photos) from "Ashley" saying she had just inherited a few million $$ from her late father in Nigeria. She wanted to get married immediately and she was going to Nigeria to pick up the money.
I told my friend, "Tell her you are POOR." I'm not sure exactly what she was up to but it's funny how fast they run if you tell them you are destitute.
Another friend's son actually fell for it--these are the younger people whose minds are eaten up by drugs. He used to be smart, now is a barely functional nutcase. But he sent money to some woman from some country so she could come here and marry him. Never heard from her again. There are a lot of up and coming druggies who will fall for these tactics and add that to the dementia people=a sad state of affairs.
That is such a well known scam. I first heard of it years ago. Of course people other than seniors can also fall for it. There's a fool born every minute, but seniors may be especially vulnerable as their mental acuity slips and as they disengage from the outside world by no longer reading general publications where periodic warnings of such things appear. I still read the Los Angeles Times daily.
This thread, as a warning about such scams, is one of the good things about the City-Data Retirement Forum.
Apparently enough people fall for this and similar scams that the warnings are well-advised. What I always wonder is how someone figures they've won the lottery when they haven't bought any lottery tickets, or won a contest when they haven't entered it?
Or as the mental acuity slips, they just believe everything they're told, and their "too good to be true" filters no longer work....
The Nigerian scam is also alive and well. A 55 yr old friend of mine who does online dating got a romantic email (complete with sexy photos) from "Ashley" saying she had just inherited a few million $$ from her late father in Nigeria. She wanted to get married immediately and she was going to Nigeria to pick up the money.
I told my friend, "Tell her you are POOR." I'm not sure exactly what she was up to but it's funny how fast they run if you tell them you are destitute.
Another friend's son actually fell for it--these are the younger people whose minds are eaten up by drugs. He used to be smart, now is a barely functional nutcase. But he sent money to some woman from some country so she could come here and marry him. Never heard from her again. There are a lot of up and coming druggies who will fall for these tactics and add that to the dementia people=a sad state of affairs.
I sincerely hope I never lose so much mental acuity that I believe I have a rich uncle, or any other relatives for that matter, in Nigeria.
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