My elderly father got a call from someone pretending to be his grandson saying he was at a buddy's wedding in the Middle East, had too much to drink, got into an accident leaving the reception and now needed $2,500 to bail out of jail. When the caller screwed up on the first name, Pops figured out he was being scammed.
I heard a prosecutor say the same exact thing happened to her mother, who went ahead and wired the money, but the prosecutor managed to get a full refund from the scammer, who was never brought to justice.
The point is, the scamming of your grandparents is getting out of hand.
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So out of hand that the California State Bar is holding a “Seniors Scam Stoppers Event” from 9 a.m. to noon Friday at Irvine Senior Center, 20 Lake Road Irvine.
Topics include: real estate and mortgage fraud; lawyer fraud and unlicensed practice
of law; scams against seniors
in local neighborhoods; unlicensed home repair and contractors; identity theft and unlicensed auto repair.
Government investigators and law enforcement experts will be on hand to inform seniors how to guard against fraud and protect themselves from identity theft. It's free and open to the public but an RSVP is required at 714.665.6868, via email at iv******@as*.gov or via the website.
Food and refreshments will be served.
Email: mc****@oc******.com. Twitter: @MatthewTCoker. Follow OC Weekly on Twitter @ocweekly or on Facebook!
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.