It's gone too far...

[Essjay]

I had a call from 'my bank', they said they needed me to authorise a payment to a named person, did I give my consent. I said no. So then they said someone had obviously got into my account so they needed to reprogramme my PIN reader I told them I'd go into branch to get it done. Some people would believe that, unfortunately.


About 20 years ago one of my sons worked for a high street bank, well before internet banking and contactless cards. One customer was an elderly woman who'd had some work done on her house. She kept going to the branch to withdraw money for the builder saying I'm sure I've already paid him. Then her son came in and asked the bank not to pay out any more money for the builder, his mother had dementia and was being conned by the builder. Soon after she came in again to withdraw money for the builder. My son served her and saw a man lurking outside, so he told the woman there was a complication he needed to get checked, went into the inner office and phoned the police. They caught him - aided by the bank manager who walked out as though he was a customer and followed the builder home.

 

[GaryE]

People can be awful. I knew a charming guy who had zero memory, and was in a facility waiting for placement in a care home. He had owned a chain of restaurants before dementia set in, and the family had hired 2 caregivers so he could stay in his house. They didn't visit (too busy) and gave the unqualified caregivers free rein.
He was morbidly obese, so much so that he barely fit in a wheelchair. The caregivers had brought him fast food every time he asked. He couldn't remember if he'd eaten, so he was running at 10 to 15 meals a day. Of course, there was a service charge to go get the food, and a big tip when they brought the food. They claimed it wasn't abusive because they brought food when asked.
Give people like that the right software, and throats will be cut.

 

[Ceez]

I had a call from 'my bank', they said they needed me to authorise a payment to a named person, did I give my consent. I said no. So then they said someone had obviously got into my account so they needed to reprogramme my PIN reader I told them I'd go into branch to get it done. Some people would believe that, unfortunately.


About 20 years ago one of my sons worked for a high street bank, well before internet banking and contactless cards. One customer was an elderly woman who'd had some work done on her house. She kept going to the branch to withdraw money for the builder saying I'm sure I've already paid him. Then her son came in and asked the bank not to pay out any more money for the builder, his mother had dementia and was being conned by the builder. Soon after she came in again to withdraw money for the builder. My son served her and saw a man lurking outside, so he told the woman there was a complication he needed to get checked, went into the inner office and phoned the police. They caught him - aided by the bank manager who walked out as though he was a customer and followed the builder home.

That's the happy ending I was looking for. You made my day with this, thanks Essjay!

 

[Back in the fold]

These creeps have always been around. There just wasn’t an internet for the miscreants to exploit for nefarious purposes.

I think you’re right about the internet being the problem . The bad guys always turn anything good into something bad .

 

[Yellow]

so lately I'm getting 3-5 junk mail phone calls per day... my office phone forwards to my cell, so I have to be nice until...

this morning my phone rang at 4:00 in the morning, with a junk phone call... Tax relief services if I recall correctly, as they are one that call every day, at least twice... since I'm an emergency recall number for our work, & the contact for the alarm service, I can't just shut off my ringer... maybe I can go back & ban that number... but it seems they switch numbers & steal local phone numbers, so I'm not sure what I can do... I lost an hour of sleep today... & I'm more tired than usual, in my mid afternoon slump...

That sucks!
I'm sorry.
Your not the only one.
If everyone could just get a fish tank and fall into that hoby, ours phones will ring less!