Protecting older adults from fraud

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Purpose In Action: Accountants building a better world (libsyn.com)

Older adults can be inundated with suspicious communications from potential fraudsters these days.

That’s why this episode is a must-listen for older adults who are worried about being susceptible to fraud, as well as for their family members and friends who want to protect them.

Mitchell Freedman, CPA/PFS, and Ann Marie Milinazzo, CPA/PFS, share insights on fraud schemes to watch for. They also outline tactics that can be used to protect older adults from fraud.

You’ll hear:

• Tips for recognizing fraudulent communications.
• How family members and friends can protect older adults, and how accounting professionals recognize whether family members have their parents’ or grandparents’ best interests at heart.
• How advance planning can help reduce older adults’ exposure to fraud.
• What to do if you become a victim of fraud.

 

A friend of mine did this podcast recently for our CPA association.

Susan Bradley Patch Lady/Prudent patcher

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RetiredGeek, oldfry, AlphaCharlie, satrow, WSBirdLady, opti1

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Up to last year I got my share of spam (10-20 per day). Most of it was just annoying but innocuous spam, usually recognised by my ISP’s antispam feature.

But in this A.D. 2022 it gradually evolved into phishing rods, ± 5/day, interspersed with what I believe to be outright ransomware attempts, ± 5/week.

I trained my paranoia to apply a rule of thumb and instantly reject all attempts that try to stimulate my greed, libido, indignation, curiosity and/or pity. I’ve never been infected so far.

For 20 years Robin Keir‘s old K9 has been an excellent bouncer, but it only works with POP3 mail. Sadly I had to let it go because with SSL and other mail security it doesn’t work so well any more.

Thank Olympus my mail provider’s efficient spamfilter is a good successor.

P.S. I shall contact Malwarebytes to assure them that Robin Keir’s website doesn’t harbour any malware. The man is a software security expert, after all.

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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Hey, what’s up?!

Though I’m not the author of the original post, I do get the option to mark this thread RESOLVED.

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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satrow

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Am I the only one who finds this all a wee bit patronizing?

I’m an “older adult” but I consider myself a lot less at risk from scammers and fraudsters than younger people who tend to click without thinking on every shiny little link that they come across

And yeah, as we get on a bit, our faculties may get a bit rusty, but remember, us old codgers have been around computers since the olden times, AND we have the life experience

If it sounds too good to be true, then it always is

 

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Alex5723

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NaNoNyMouse wrote:

I’m an “older adult” … us old codgers

Remember that not all “old codgers” like you and I have as much computing experience.

35 years or so ago, computers were by far not so ubiquitous as they are now. Many elderly people started IT quite late in life, much later than the youngsters who “grew up” with it. Do keep in mind that I’m NOT writing about the US and UK, but about non-English-native western Europeans.

Though at 46 I wasn’t a youngster any more, from then on I myself did “grow up” with it. But that long ago in that age group I was 1 in 10 to study and use a computer, and even assemble my own new machines for a new Windows version, every 6 years.

My early enthousiasm for all things binary has, professionally and domestically, stood me in good stead.

1 Desktop Win 11
1 Laptop Win 10
Both tweaked to look, behave and feel like Windows 95
(except for the marine blue desktop, rgb(0, 3, 98)

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NaNoNyMouse

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@ NaNoNyMouse

Patronizing to this audience (Askwoody), probably yes. But this type of information is not aimed at the type of folks who hang out here. It is aimed at the grandparent whose only computer experience is receiving and sending email without a clue what is going on behind the curtain.

Pass it on to the right audience member and do them a big favor.

 

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NaNoNyMouse

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Susan,

Is there any way to get this w/o having to use a pod cast?
I’d very much like to get a link that we could post to our Retirement Community’s website if that is possible so our 80+ residents could just click on a link and listen through their browser w/o having a feed reader.

Thanks.

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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Click the icon to play it at the web link:

Windows 11 Pro version 22H2 build 22621.2361 + Microsoft 365 + Edge

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Duh! I should have tried it but I didn’t scroll down far enough. The problem of reading only so far…

Thanks b!

May the Forces of good computing be with you!

RG

PowerShell & VBA Rule!
Computer Specs

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This is exactly the topic I was looking for.  However, I cannot get it to play.

All I get is a .PNG showing on screen, nothing plays. I assume a browser (Edge) setting is blocking it, but I have no idea what it is. Copying the link to Firefox brought up the same image. Thank you.

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I used to have a customer who was a retired college professor. I would go to his house and fix his computer, install a computer desk, etc., whenever he would call me.

One day some crooks called him and convinced him that he had computer problems, and that he needed to pay them a bunch of money to fix the problems. He finally caught on to the scam after they had stolen a bunch of his money.

When he told me about it, I asked him, “Why didn’t you call me if you suspected that you had computer problems? I’m your IT guy.” He didn’t have an answer to that one.

He got sucked into a scam, and he had his own IT guy! I can only imagine how many get sucked in when they have no one to advise them.

Group "L" (Linux Mint)
with Windows 8.1 running in a VM

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geekdom

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