I hope this anecdote helps anyone with a phone, especially a land line. Scammers love land lines because old poops have them most! Yesterday, Spouse called me the moment I returned from an errand, saying "I need you right now" and I entered the room where he was on the telephone. "You mean I can't talk to my wife?" was the next sentence out of his mouth and I realized he was being scammed. His demeanor was beleaguered and his following response to Scammer was "About a thousand."
I planted myself directly in front of Spouse to say "I need to talk to you right now. It's important." Again, Scammer tried to keep Spouse from handing the phone to me and Spouse waffled, thank goodness. I told Spouse that I was going to get on the downstairs phone and he nodded yes as he listened to Scammer. Spouse reacts emotionally if I become agitated myself so I held everything inside to avoid the automatic outburst from Spouse which could have devastating effects on the entire sitch.
Spouse said "You mean that I'm a criminal and I can't hand the phone to my wife?" in a disbelieving way as I hurried downstairs. Then Spouse said, "Yes, I do want to help you."
I entered the conversation, asking what is this regarding, what is your company's name, and so forth, noticing the Indian accent in the voice as Scammer replied, "I'm from the Social Security department, let me speak to your husband."
I asked again about his company, he repeated "Social Security" and then he called me a SOB, so I said "You can't call me a SOB, I'm ending this," and hung up.
The upshot is that Spouse realized he'd been scammed; he related the entire sequence of events, beginning with a robocall directing him to call "this number because you face criminal prosecution." He called the number and "Social Security officer" claimed Spouse was referenced in an attempt to buy a vehicle in TX (we reside in CA), had "a dozen bank accounts" (Spouse has just 1) and that Spouse was "a criminal". Scammer gave Spouse an address to mail inquiries to, a "case number" and "incident number." Spouse had given out his last four only.
To Spouse's credit, he realized this was a scam after he'd calmed; I feared initially he'd blow off my concerns or get defensive and actually call or write to Scammer. It took all I had to remain calm and explain that SS reported an upswing in scammers claiming to be SS employees to gain SS numbers, bank account numbers, etc. Spouse listened when I told him SS never calls but uses USPS for correspondence. That part was encouraging. Again, if I'd started an argument, Spouse is at the "No" two-year-old stage. I sure felt like screaming, though, and now it seems more difficult than ever to leave the house.
Reporting the scam took a trip through the SS phone line, which referred me to the Inspector General, which referred me to the FTC, where I spoke to a human being to report the incident. She advised to call TransUnion to place a fraud alert, which I did.
Scammer techniques used:
1. Knowing person's name and address 2. Intimidation, "You're a criminal!" 3. Coercion, "Don't you want to help me?" 4. Giving official sounding "case numbers" and "incident numbers" 5. Isolation, "No, you can't speak with your wife."
Everything I read in here is helpful IF YOU HAVE THE $~but for those of us who don't, what then? There is no place for the older population, if you can't pay for it.
I have been the ONLY caregiver for my soon to be X husband for the past 17 years. Another woman came into his life & instructed him to change all the locks on all the doors & he did so, locking me out. She proceeded to get him a attorney, telling him I was a prostitute & selling drugs, & that he needed to divorce me. We are now in the process of the divorce. Yep, I am a 71 yr.old hooker selling drugs????????? Sept. of 2015 is when this all went down. I attempted to go into our home & all the locks had been changed. I knocked on the window & he came to the door & when I attempted to walk into my home, he pushed me down resulting in my suffering a heart attack, a severe spinal injury requiring surgery, a 3 month hospital stay which has left me in $300,000. debt. I have never till this point been in debt in my entire life. Police were very supportive & told me not to let him use the "mental illness" to get away with it . Police were not able to arrest him because he had an attorney all set up already via this woman who entered our lives & turned mine upside down.
I am not able to do much anymore. Till this incident of his pushing me down, I was running daily. I am not congenitally impaired. He suffers from a brain tumor, biopolar disease, & solvent dementia.
I have gone through the entire system here where I live & come up with nothing.
You are absolutely right! That 's one of the "red flags!" I also found out that it was not any of our soldiers doing this, it's coming out of Nigeria!!!! I found out about this Troy Turner and he's been discharged over 4 years ago and is still trying to clear his name!!!
LONGLIFE I've been writing several comments in this article but here's a very important one that should be reported to the head of the US Army at the pentagon. There'a group of military men some stationed in Kabul, Afganistan sending letters to helpless females usually lonely, old ladies. I happen to be one of those ladies. He's very good at his scam.............he's told me that his wife and young son died and he wanted to kill himself but finally by reading the bible it helped him and now he's looking for an older woman to hopefuully marry. He asked me for pictures of myself and told me I was so beautiful and I began falling in love with this guy. We wrote back and forth and it was getting serious. He said he had ony less than 2 months before retiring, etc., etc. By now I just knew this wasn't right so I decided to investigate him and found his name in some of the army files. All of this was leading up to asking for money! His NAME IS Master Sergeant Troy Turner, and he was mentioned in several scams!
Please everyone out there report him to the Pentagon and have this stopped! We are asked to honor and respect our soldiers and this is what they are doing to us!!!!
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Crime, Abuse and the Elderly
I planted myself directly in front of Spouse to say "I need to talk to you right now. It's important." Again, Scammer tried to keep Spouse from handing the phone to me and Spouse waffled, thank goodness. I told Spouse that I was going to get on the downstairs phone and he nodded yes as he listened to Scammer. Spouse reacts emotionally if I become agitated myself so I held everything inside to avoid the automatic outburst from Spouse which could have devastating effects on the entire sitch.
Spouse said "You mean that I'm a criminal and I can't hand the phone to my wife?" in a disbelieving way as I hurried downstairs. Then Spouse said, "Yes, I do want to help you."
I entered the conversation, asking what is this regarding, what is your company's name, and so forth, noticing the Indian accent in the voice as Scammer replied, "I'm from the Social Security department, let me speak to your husband."
I asked again about his company, he repeated "Social Security" and then he called me a SOB, so I said "You can't call me a SOB, I'm ending this," and hung up.
The upshot is that Spouse realized he'd been scammed; he related the entire sequence of events, beginning with a robocall directing him to call "this number because you face criminal prosecution." He called the number and "Social Security officer" claimed Spouse was referenced in an attempt to buy a vehicle in TX (we reside in CA), had "a dozen bank accounts" (Spouse has just 1) and that Spouse was "a criminal". Scammer gave Spouse an address to mail inquiries to, a "case number" and "incident number." Spouse had given out his last four only.
To Spouse's credit, he realized this was a scam after he'd calmed; I feared initially he'd blow off my concerns or get defensive and actually call or write to Scammer. It took all I had to remain calm and explain that SS reported an upswing in scammers claiming to be SS employees to gain SS numbers, bank account numbers, etc. Spouse listened when I told him SS never calls but uses USPS for correspondence. That part was encouraging. Again, if I'd started an argument, Spouse is at the "No" two-year-old stage. I sure felt like screaming, though, and now it seems more difficult than ever to leave the house.
Reporting the scam took a trip through the SS phone line, which referred me to the Inspector General, which referred me to the FTC, where I spoke to a human being to report the incident. She advised to call TransUnion to place a fraud alert, which I did.
Scammer techniques used:
1. Knowing person's name and address
2. Intimidation, "You're a criminal!"
3. Coercion, "Don't you want to help me?"
4. Giving official sounding "case numbers" and "incident numbers"
5. Isolation, "No, you can't speak with your wife."
I have been the ONLY caregiver for my soon to be X husband for the past 17 years.
Another woman came into his life & instructed him to change all the locks on all the doors & he did so, locking me out. She proceeded to get him a attorney, telling him I was a prostitute & selling drugs, & that he needed to divorce me. We are now in the process of the divorce. Yep, I am a 71 yr.old hooker selling drugs?????????
Sept. of 2015 is when this all went down. I attempted to go into our home & all the locks had been changed. I knocked on the window & he came to the door & when I attempted to walk into my home, he pushed me down resulting in my suffering a heart attack, a severe spinal injury requiring surgery, a 3 month hospital stay which has left me in $300,000. debt. I have never till this point been in debt in my entire life. Police were very supportive & told me not to let him use the "mental illness" to get away with it . Police were not able to arrest him because he had an attorney all set up already via this woman who entered our lives & turned mine upside down.
I am not able to do much anymore. Till this incident of his pushing me down, I was running daily.
I am not congenitally impaired. He suffers from a brain tumor, biopolar disease, & solvent dementia.
I have gone through the entire system here where I live & come up with nothing.
I will be living on the street soon.
ADVICE?
Master Sergeant Troy Turner, and he was mentioned in several scams!
Please everyone out there report him to the Pentagon and have this stopped! We are asked to honor and respect our soldiers and this is what they are doing to us!!!!