When Is Advice Too Much Advice?
The Holiday Season brings about too much of most everything for many of us. Too much food to eat, too many gifts to buy and just simply too many things to do. In the arena of too much is also too much advice. Senior citizens are beginning to get too many phone calls to keep up. There is a caller on the other end talking about updating your medical coverage. Are you satisfied with your Medicare coverage or do you want to try something else? What about life insurance, do you have enough to bury yourself? Is your money invested in the right place and what about purchasing an annuity so that you will have money for the rest of your life?
Imagine, you are a senior citizen living alone with no close relatives nearby you can count on and you are hit with all of these questions by someone on the other end of your phone who sounds legitimate. They start pouring all of this information in your ear at at rate you can barely keep up with. The next thing you know they are saying how much they can do for you with just a little money down and that you have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. They ask for your credit card number and the scam begins.
First, seniors are targets for scammers. You cannot emphasize this dynamic enough during the Holiday season. If someone calls you on the phone, most of us have caller ID, if you don’t recognize the number or the name let it ring. After so many rings, they will eventually hang up because they are about production, the numbers moving on to the next unsuspecting victim. More importantly, if someone knocks on your door you are neither expecting and have not invited to your home, don’t respond to the knock or the door bell. They should not know whether you are home or not. If it is really someone who knows you and wants to visit with you, they will call you on the phone before coming to your door. If they do come and you don’t respond to the knock, they will even call out your name.
Not answering your door and phone is within your control. There are many things we cannot control – like the frigid weather- that seems to be coming our way, but we can control who we communicate with. No matter how nice they seem and how sweet and sincere they sound on the phone, let them take their charms somewhere else. You can never be safe enough as a senior or a Federal retiree. Scammers think Federal retirees have some healthy purse strings and they want to become their best friends.
Stay safe for the Holiday and don’t be caught off-guard by people (men and women) who have built their careers on taking advantage of other people.
P. S. Always Remember to Share What You Know.
Dianna Tafazoli
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