How to Not Get Scammed

How to not get scammed should be easy for senior citizens. We're experienced, wise old folks who learned, when we were children, the golden rule of scam avoidance—if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Yet the FBI reports that people over 60 lost $1.7 billion to fraud in 2021. Today's challenge is simply the pervasiveness of online scamming. When we were growing up, fraudsters needed to show up on our doorstep to sell us over-priced, poor-quality aluminum siding. Today, a scammer, with little effort, can send out millions of emails for virtually nothing. Robocalls are equally easy to generate cheaply and efficiently.

The good news, as the old codgers discuss in this episode, how to not get scammed isn't difficult. Starting with a healthy dose of skepticism followed by a good measure of common sense, most folks in their senior years can avoid the clutches of the online fraudster. We explore how often we see email scams (daily, of course), and how we identify fraudulent messages in our inboxes. And, because it is all too common, we relate stories of friends and family who have been the victims of fraud.

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