3.11.2021

Phone scams: How do they work?

Phone scams are a real plague nowadays. Just imagine: your grandpa hears his phone ringing and sees, that you are calling.
He probably gets a bit excited: no matter if you talk a lot or rarely find time to contact, it's always good to hear from you.
Then, he hears on the other hand of the line: "Grandpa? Hi, I'm calling you, because I'm in a bit of a trouble.
Mom gave me some money to buy extra clothes, but well, I lost them. Could you please help me? I will pay back!"

What happens next? Well, probably your grandpa will feel obliged to reach out a helping hand to you and send you some money.
This is a good thing, right? Well, no it's not, because you weren't the person who called him and you know it very well.

Family boundaries are often used by frauds

Sadly, most of the scammers use family boundaries to get money from older family members.
Keep in mind, that it doesn't have to be your grandma or grandpa - it can be an aunt or even your mom.
The elderly are not as suspicious as younger people are and thus - they rarely realise they can be an object to a scam.

The way the frauds work is pretty simple, if you know what they might be doing.
First of all, they always pick an older person as their target and pretend to be their grandson or granddaughter (or another family member, but as it's riskier, it's also less often) and sell a long, slightly confusing story, which sends a clear message: this person is in trouble and only a small "loan" can save them.

How to protect your family from being scammed?

We don't have to tell you many older people got scammed and sometimes - they even lost all the savings.
To protect your beloved ones, talk with your grandparents and explain to them, that nowadays the regular shoplifting or any other kind of stealing turned into many kinds of digital theft.

Explain to them, that if you ever "call them" from an unknown number, stating that for some reason you can't contact them via your regular phone number - they should hang up and call you immediately.

However, keep in mind, that some of the thieves are really smart and they can confuse the person they are calling.
Is it safe to just hang up and try to reach you if "you" state that your phone is broken and you are standing at the checkout, waiting for the transfer? To avoid this sort of pressure from being put on your beloved ones - we strongly suggest to download them an app, that will inform them about a potential scam. It should keep them safe!

Remember that you can check each number on our website!