PSA - Have a Family Word

[kymom99]

My MIL fell for the grandma scam. She paid thousands of dollars to a scammer who convinced her that her grandson had gotten into a fight in turkey and was in prison.

As far as a family word, I like it. Does anyone have a suggestion in case someone calls on behalf of a family member, like if that person is incapacitated? My son is single and lives alone out of state.

 

[RedAngie]

Yep, we've had a family word since the kids were little. (It's a very obscure vegetable that no one would use in normal conversation.) It's burned into all of our subconsciousnesses (?) .

My favorite obscure vegetable is cardone.

I hope I haven’t outed your family code word.

 

[flyingdumbo127]

Prayers of safety to all!

 

[NYCgrrl]

but *we* would be hiring the attorney, not dealing with some unknown person over the phone.

Just to clarify “the kid” is 55 y/o so in this instance I can’t imagine why anyone in the family would know the atty he supposedly hired or procure legal services. Makes no difference how old your children are as to paraphrase PT Barnum there is a sucker born every minute.

 

[sarahann77]

Probably would help with a cloned or hacked profile messaging for money too. Someone was in my uncle's account where he was hard pushing this grant. If it was legit why would he care if we had applied - he wouldn't. Tried to ask him what relation he had expecting names or something personal and wasn't answered. He did give my mom that full answer but it wasn't with any names and when she acknowledged he never answered me he never came back.

 

[amylevan]

I think it’s just important to remind your family members that there is almost no incident that is going to need “immediate” cash. If someone is rushing you to make a decision to deliver cash, stop, think, and if needed call a family member to verify things. (No your grandson is not imprisoned in a foreign country…)

Lawyers, hospitals, etc will send you a bill. Bail is not a time sensitive emergency (and honestly in a true scenario, maybe a time out thinking about what they’ve done might be good for them).

So just remind your older family members to slow down and check in with someone before they rush to send funds to anyone.

 

[tvguy]

I think it’s just important to remind your family members that there is almost no incident that is going to need “immediate” cash. If someone is rushing you to make a decision to deliver cash, stop, think, and if needed call a family member to verify things. (No your grandson is not imprisoned in a foreign country…)

Lawyers, hospitals, etc will send you a bill. Bail is not a time sensitive emergency (and honestly in a true scenario, maybe a time out thinking about what they’ve done might be good for them).

So just remind your older family members to slow down and check in with someone before they rush to send funds to anyone.

I think folks over on the cruise line forum might disagree. In some parts of the work, medical providers expect immediate payment and will prevent you from leaving without settling your bill. Although in the biggest picture, I have a hard time believing that people fall for this scam in the first place.

 

[AlohaNow]

Thanks for posting this! We established a code word when my son moved overseas. Because there are terrible, evil people in this world. I just hate that anyone falls for these scams, but obviously someone will, so that is why they persist!

 

[ChrisFL]

In addition to all of this...with A.I. now it is also easy to replicate your voice (if somehow they obtain enough of seconds of it, through another phone call or whatever), then they could literally impersonate YOU while calling someone.