Someone calls and says, “Grandma, i’ve been in an accident …” and so on. Why don’t people ask a few questions? If you’re my grand daughter, what’s my name, when is my birthday, where do I live, what’s my favorite food?
Someone calls and says, “Grandma, i’ve been in an accident …” and so on. Why don’t people ask a few questions? If you’re my grand daughter, what’s my name, when is my birthday, where do I live, what’s my favorite food?
You wrongly assume the victims of scammers are aware something is off. The people that fall for it do not realise something is off. So naturally they go into crisis mode and try to solve the problem. They may have a weird feeling that something is off, but if they fell for it, the urge to solve the problem was bigger.
The scammers are going for the low hanging fruit. They create urgency and panic and if somebody is not responding to that they’ll likely move on.
So the key to fighting scammers is in learning people to control their first reaction to someone “panic” calling them. The moment they feel pressured to do something, the alarm bells should start to ring. And family members should make it very clear everyone is allowed to hang up.
Look up the correct number, call back. Being rude is allowed. Just look up the phone number in your own phonebook, call back and if you feel guilty about hanging up, apologize for dropping your phone and “accidentally” hanging up.