Chances are most of us here are pretty tech-savvy and can spot phishing scams a mile off, but the older generation who haven’t grown up with the internet are now having to use it and are an easy target for scammers. Check in with your family and friends to make sure Granddad isn’t sending money to someone claiming to be Amazon, Grandma isn’t using “passw0rd” for every account, and the couple next door aren’t sharing their names, address, and bank details on Facebook!
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I had an issue where my aged auntie was signed up to a big Virgin package (she only needed TV and phones) without her asking - first thing she knew was the home installation kit arrived, something she’d never order without checking with family tech support (me). When I rang them, they were good about fixing it and pretty much admitted that someone at the call centre had done it to get a bonus. Then it happened a second time, so I was back on the phone to them. They let me keep the home installation box the second time and drill make use of that very long Ethernet cable.
So the big companies can pull a fast one too. Be vigilant.
My mum very nearly got scammed, it was one of those phone calls pretending to be BT about the phone line getting hacked. It was only a few days after my dad died, and she was in shock and not thinking straight, and panicked because she was waiting for the coroner to email her and went into stress mode at the thought of not getting the email. They got her to install an app on her tablet, but when they asked her for bank details she refused. They then spent nearly an hour trying to convince her, getting her into a worse and worse state. I’ve never wanted to kill someone as much as I did when I found out. Particularly when I found out that she’d told them her husband had just died and he’d always dealt with computer stuff… I knew as soon as they heard that they just went “ker-ching we’ve got a juicy one”. Still makes my blood boil two years later.
