[January]

My 83 year old, hard of hearing Mother has been the victim of some very nasty people pulling a scam on her. A woman has been calling my Mom and telling her it's very important to call her back at a "toll free" number.

We have a loved one in Iraq and Mom was afraid not to call the woman back at the numbers given. Apparently it's some kind of porn place. I have no idea what kind of charges Mom has incurred on her bill. I have spoken to Verizon and locked out all 14, (yes, I said 14), prefix numbers that charge a person for their calls. I loathe people who prey on the elderly.

I know many of you help take care of your parents and thought I'd better share this with you. When I asked my mother why she didn't hang up, she said, "It's very rude to hang up on people."

I know that sounds funny, but my poor Mother thought something very bad was going to happen to her if she didn't call those numbers. When I get her bill, I will be filing charges against these companies with the State Attorney General.

Jan

[lenjan]

Jan, I need to introduce your mother to my mother. Mine hangs up on ME all the time, generally after sending a few choice cuss words my way, and she's 78!

Seriously, I'm sorry this happened, and that you have to deal with it.

ohhh Jan... I am so sorry... for you.. and your mom.. I just hate people that take advantage of people like your mom.. and she was just being poliet...

((((hugs))))

[January]

((((((((((( Candy & Freewill ))))))))))

Thank you both so very much. Mom is easily "conned". People call and make her so nervous she buys the products so they'll leave her alone. Then I usually have to clean up the mess, although I worry that she hides some of them so I won't know.

Hugs,

Jan

[recluse1]

it takes a special kind of "sorry" to prey on sick and elderly people. i am glad you are there to protect her interests. though i know it brings you a great deal of stress and anger i'm sure. i had no idea you could block them from calling or that there were so many prefixes for them to call from.....unreal.

ty for sharing. i hope it is all straightened out in the end and that your call will be the end of you having to deal with these people.

Jan, I totally understand.

I have finally convinced my mother to say, "you'll have to call my daughter" no matter what it's about.

If she doesn't know them, that's what she says.

It has actually given her a sense of relief.

Now if I could just get her to LOCK her door during the day. She thinks crimes only happen at night and not to her.

[eskielover]

Scams are one of the things that really gets to me......espceially after the home care person (who was supposed to be an RN) pulled all the ID theft & stole all the valuable jewelry from my 80 year old mother who was dying of cancer. She preys on people with cancer.....from what I can figure out......& the police couldn't do a thing about it because I stopped payment on the checks that she wrote & caught her on the phone applying for the credit card, but stopped that before she could do anything. Only thing she did get away with was stealing a credit care & using it before they stopped the card because they figured out the fraud.

I was with my mother 24 hours a day during that time & it was happening right in front of my eyes, but they are so good, it's hard to realize what they are actually doing until things all start adding up. It took me 5 days to figure it all out & then it ended with the police coming to the house to accuse ME of abusing my Mother......then she OD'ed my Mother on morphine & that was the only way I could get her out of the house.

If it was easier to catch people who scam people & the penalty was worse, it might stop or at least slow it down, but it's so easy for them to get away with everything.

Glad you caught the scam fairly quickly,
Debbie