Guard Your Financial Fitness Against Scams
One of the major threats to our continued financial fitness as we accumulate and then tap into our retirement nest eggs is financial fraud which has many different faces.
Sometimes financial fraud can be as simple as selling an item or service at an offered “discount” price that is actually much higher than the product or service can be obtained for from a legitimate source.
Door to door salesman offering “today only” prices for roof or driveway repair come to mind. Many limited time offers of price and supply fall into this same category. I’ve seen many items advertised with a price good for the next hour, day, quantity or – you fill in the blank – only to see that the price has not changed the following week or month.
There are many unscrupulous sharks preying on the wary with many different schemes that benefit no one but themselves. By the time you reach middle age you have probably heard of most of the financial scams that people use to prey on the unwary. They are in the news all of the time. Your newspaper or local television gives reports on folks who have gotten taken in by them and you have no doubt heard of others from friends and relatives.
The surprising thing is that these scams seem to run in cycles. One week the news carries items of a particular fraud and several weeks later a different scheme makes the headlines. Soon after another one is uncovered. After awhile the first one, maybe with a slight variation, surfaces again.
The same scams repeat over and over again victimizing a whole new set of people.
Why?
Sometimes we fall victims to our own greed. Many people are driven to have more and more, bigger and better, and cheaper than their neighbor. They are not bothered by the fact that if it sounds too good to be true there is probably a catch somewhere.
At other times we get taken because we truly think we are helping someone. The “Grandpa/Grandma, I’m in trouble” scam is one of the worst ones I’ve run across. It surfaces quite frequently and hits my “Top 5 Worst Ever” list for several reasons.
The people targeted are not trying to get anything for themselves, they lose money they cannot afford to lose, sometimes the money set aside for food and medicine. And they feel real shame and loss of dignity for being foolish enough to fall for the scam. If you haven’t heard of it, it works like this:
The phone rings late in the evening. You answer the phone and hear, “Hi Grandma/Grandpa this is your grandson/granddaughter.” Often the grandparent will say something like “Is this you, John/Mary?”, using the name of a child who sounds something like the caller.
The caller then says they are in trouble through no fault of their own: they were with their buddy who got picked up for dope; their car broke down and was towed; they’ve been injured, etc.. They will say that they are in another state or country and need money to get home, out of jail, or for car repair. We personally had a call from a nonexistent grandchild stuck in Canada.
The “grandchild” will ask that the money be wired to them through Western Union. They will further ask, “Please don’t tell Mom or Dad. they don’t know I’m here and I don’t want to add to the troubles they are having right now.”
If you wire the money, you will never see it again and you will never find the grandchild you thought you were helping.
If you or your parents get a call like this, try to find out where they want the money sent and then call your local police to get them involved. But don’t send the money!
You’ve worked hard for your financial fitness so you can have a comfortable retirement. Don’t let some scammer cheat you – or your parents – out of it.
