Beware! New scam targeting seniors

Seems so many scams are aimed at seniors. Recently of course the scooter scams, a couple of years ago here we had salespersons trying to get us to take their gas, they would even try to tell us they were from Fortis. They did provide the gas but at a higher price. I guess some fall for the scams since the costly advertising continues.
 
So what is the scam?
Do you get a scooter or is that a monthly payment price or something?
Not a member of FB but seems if it was a scam or fraud, they'd take it down or block it ... wouldn't they?
Not in the market for a scooter and even if I was, would be VERY leery just based on your post.
 

Okay, found this with a google search. Let me see the FB post without being a member ... Mobility Direct
So seems there are scam and fraud adverts on FB ... some just fishing for personal information and never sending a product.
At least that was the case during the time of that post in 2019. Maybe not much has changed.
 
Naturally said:
So what is the scam?
Do you get a scooter or is that a monthly payment price or something?
Not a member of FB but seems if it was a scam or fraud, they'd take it down or block it ... wouldn't they?
Not in the market for a scooter and even if I was, would be VERY leery just based on your post.
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Facebook is the worst at letting this type of thing go on....

Although they have been monitoring posts ... at the same time many items sold on marketplace site are moving shoplifted items etc.....
friend had some items stolen and Police said she should check to see if people were selling items on FACEBOOK .....

Just saw in news the morgue manager at Harvard University medical school was selling body parts and skulls etc from the donated to science bodies and sold several items through Facebook........
 
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I came across something like this, many years ago, I
ordered an item from Ebay, I can't remember what it
was, but the price was lower than others, there were
no goods, as soon as I contacted the seller, I got the
money returned.

The seller said that the goods were in London, another
good reason to buy from him/her, it turned out the all
they wanted was the money, like a loan, they put it into
a high interest account, just to get the interest, after they
were discovered, all open orders were repaid to the buyers
and the account was closed, but I suspect that it still happening
somewhere.

Mike.
 
Mike said:
I came across something like this, many years ago, I
ordered an item from Ebay, I can't remember what it
was, but the price was lower than others, there were
no goods, as soon as I contacted the seller, I got the
money returned.

The seller said that the goods were in London, another
good reason to buy from him/her, it turned out the all
they wanted was the money, like a loan, they put it into
a high interest account, just to get the interest, after they
were discovered, all open orders were repaid to the buyers
and the account was closed, but I suspect that it still happening
somewhere.

Mike.
Click to expand...
I have purchased some 4000 items on eBay without problem, the payment via PayPal is held back by them. Mind, the current scams on Card payment are now almost out of control. My Sister was done twice last week twice for around £700 and a friend had £9000 taken from her bank account, the blessing of our modern new world.
Many years back, a colleague did surveys on boats for sale for the very rich. Quite often he would go to the South of France to look at a boat for a wealthy client who could not be bothered, the payment being made into his bank. As it would normally be several million, he would make a late payment to the seller, as a few days' interest on several million was quite a lot. Like your eBay. but on a larger scale.
 
fuzzybuddy said:
Yeah, scammers are out there, but buyers do have a responsibility to avoid being a mark.
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True. I can't believe the number of times I see a story in the paper about someone being cheated out of thou$and$. Someone calls or texts and says your [whatever] account was hacked, and to fix it, go buy thousands of dollars worth of gift cards and "send them to...." I can *not* understand what the thought process would be that someone would actually go and buy the cards! :oops: Age isn't an excuse to not know these things.
 
They are getting more clever all the time. A couple of days ago, I got an email, supposed from the bank that holds my credit card, telling me that a suspicious purchase had been made using my card number. It showed the purchase and the amount which was realistically small, I think about $40. I looked up the company, and it was a real company, but I had never ordered or bought anything from them.

I immediately checked into my credit card web page and looked at the list of recent purchases. Of course, that one was not there. The scam was that they were asking me to click on their link so I could officially deny making the purchase. This would have probably opened up my email list for all sorts of hacking. The phony purchase was just bait, to grab my attention.

Glad I didn't fall for it!

P.S. If nothing else, why would the bank think there was something "suspicious" about a $40 purchase? It might have been more believable if they said, "$40,000".
 
CallMeKate said:
True. I can't believe the number of times I see a story in the paper about someone being cheated out of thou$and$. Someone calls or texts and says your [whatever] account was hacked, and to fix it, go buy thousands of dollars worth of gift cards and "send them to...." I can *not* understand what the thought process would be that someone would actually go and buy the cards! :oops: Age isn't an excuse to not know these things.
Click to expand...
On the contrary, a decline in critical thinking skills and naïveté that sometimes accompanies advanced age is indeed "an excuse." Seniors are targeted because they're low-hanging fruit.

It can happen to any of us - simply because I'm not vulnerable today doesn't mean I won't be in a few years.

I detailed my family's experience with this here, post #33.
https://www.seniorforums.com/thread...have-you-gotten-one.74170/page-2#post-2382020

p.s. As for Facebook, I almost never go on that site anymore (maybe once every three months - should probably delete my account). I don't trust Facebook as far as I can throw Mark Zuckerberg. The man has proven himself to be completely uncaring, unethical and irresponsible about false, inflammatory and misleading content on his sites. Ditto Elon. Money, money, money.
 
I agree with you Avon, I have bought loads from Ebay,
without any trouble, the time I mentioned above, for
some reason I used a card and not PayPal.

Mike.
 

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