Scams against seniors get worse

#MiddleburyCT #Scams #Seniors

Data breaches and financial scams against seniors are at all-time highs. What was bad before is apparently even worse now.

Why do scammers target seniors? Here are the top reasons:

• They perceive that we have a lot of money. After all, we worked all those years … we saved a lot of cash, they assume. And now we have huge pension and Social Security income that surely puts us in a high income bracket, they assume.
• Many of us grew up in an era when we were polite to people on the phone. Scammers take advantage of that and coax us into divulging private information.
• Many of us aren’t especially skilled with technology. We press buttons on our phone that we shouldn’t, or click links in strange email, not realizing that we’ve just enabled the download of a virus or made a connection to the scammers.

Here are a few suggestions for staying safe in the war with the scammers:

Order your credit report from TransUnion, Equifax and Experian and go over them line by line. Be sure there isn’t anything you don’t recognize, that no extra loans show up and no additional names are listed. To do this, go online to annualcreditreport.com and order your free credit reports. If you spot something wrong, report it at IdentityTheft.gov or call the National Elder Fraud Hotline at 833-372-8311.

Lock down your credit at all three credit bureaus. This will keep anyone from opening credit in your name.

To learn safety on your electronic devices, ask your senior center, library or even your bank for a class on how to avoid falling for an online scam.

And perhaps most valuable of all: Don’t feel the need to be polite if a stranger calls you on the phone and starts asking questions. Just hang up. Better yet, don’t answer if you don’t recognize the number.

© 2025 King Features Synd., Inc.