San Antonio Police warned today that scams targeting seniors are on the rise, and SAPD Detective David Brinkman told seniors gathered at a Wel-Med facility on the northwest side that scammers are changing tactics to stay ahead, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Dr. Brinkman says the ability of scammers to 'spoof' local phone numbers, making it appear that the call is coming from a local number, and even their ability to make the names of familiar businesses or family members appear on the phone screen is giving new life to phone scams.
He says one scam that frequently targets seniors plays on their family love."The scammer will pretend they know the victim's grandchild, and tell them that the grandchild is in prison and try to convince them to send money," he said. "Frequently they ask for the money to be sent on Green Dot cards or Western Union cards or something like that."
He says this scam frequently is accompanied by a young person screaming or crying in the background that the victim believes is their grandchild.
He says if anybody, even if their claim to be with the IRS, a local officer as in the infamous 'jury duty' scam, the 'you have a past due electric bill and you're going to turn your lights off' scam, or with some other entity, if the person demands money on the phone on a gift card, hang up. No legitimate company, utility, or government agency will demand payment over the phone, and certainly not payment made on an untraceable gift card.
"A lot of the scammers are actually overseas," he said. "They are spoofing phone numbers and convincing people that they are in the 2-1-0 area code. They tell them to go get some type of gift card, and as soon as the scammer gets that number, the money's gone."
Detective Brinkman says since tech abilities are evolving so rapidly, another common scam against seniors is when the scammer seamlessly mimics the format and header of a bank, or the company that holds their 401-k or retirement savings. They will tell that to maximize investments, or because of some sort of security breach, the senior has to transfer their money to some other account, which, of course, is the account of the scammer.