Follow
Share

Facebook is now filled with so many different scams that look like legit advertisements. By the replies in the comment section, I so surprised so many have fallen for these scams (or maybe those replies were also scams).


The postage stamp discount advertisements are a huge scam. The Post Office does not discount stamps. These ads are from overseas, printing up counterfeit stamps and postings ads here in the States. The Post Office is fighting these scams, and will toss out any envelope that has one of these stamps. Yes, it does look like a good deal on those stamps. Buyer beware.


The other day Facebook had a "sponsored" advertisement saying that Singer Sewing Machine was selling overstocked machines for $9.95. Wait.... what? Yes, for $9.95 but somewhere in the very fine print it will say your credit card will be billed $29.95 every month on a subscription. That happened to me when I took an on-line IQ test posted on Facebook. One had to pay $1.95 to get the results... then I noticed a billing for $29.95, so I quickly tracked that down. Yes, I lost that $29.95 plus the $1.95 because I didn't read the fine print buried in their ad. Lesson learned.

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Find Care & Housing
Thanks everyone for their suggestions and comments. Recently I order items from Avon from an advertisement I saw on Facebook, but I went to Google to find the company's official website, and it was the same. Ok, this looks good.


The items shipped didn't come in a shipping box marked Avon, but in a LG box which was probably first used for an appliance part. The Avon products inside the box were in good shape even though the packing material was skimpy. Guess this was shipped by an Avon sales rep from her home. So even "official" sites now has me wondering if it is the real thing... (sigh).


Now, don't get me started on AI.
(3)
Report

I've been amazed at some of the postal mail that includes surveys, forms, etc., that appear to be from the government, especially Social Security, with messages suggesting that responding will gain you funds --- and these are from nonprofits! Some have been pretty convincingly formal, and now my first look is at postage -- if it's from a political action or other NP, it'll have NONPROFIT and their permit # in the indicia on the envelope.

The other big one that wastes my time on mail are anything that pose as renewals or warn that something is running out -- house or car warranties, security software, etc. Some poses pretty well as coming from a property tax or government agency.

No helpful suggestion...we've been able to pretty much redirect and take over review of both postal and digital content coming in, but I can't believe how aggressive and convincing a lot of the content that's utterly targeting seniors is.
(3)
Report

If it’s too good to be true, it likely is.

Never, ever click on unrecognized links or sudden surprises. Delete and block them out for your protection. Contact your known source to verify legitimacy.

As one friend once told me, “Delete, Delete, Delete!”.
(2)
Report

freqflyer: Yes, you are right; one must be savvy enough to avoid those scams.
(0)
Report

Hidden and never ending subscriptions scams have been around forever, that's why in the long ago days I always used a cheque and not my credit card.... they could send me their crap forever but I wasn't paying for it (I'm looking at you readers digest). Some scams are fairly easy to spot but they are getting increasingly sophisticated, I mentioned before how scammers weren't able to get any money out of one elderly family member but they did glean enough personal information to convincingly target a different family member. And there are even scammers who will follow up by showing up at your door in "uniform" to put on pressure and/or collect.
(0)
Report

People post all sorts of recent scams on Nextdoor.com.
(1)
Report

AARP Newspaper just FULL of the newest in scams this issue! Happy reading; they are all there, including one woman who gave 800,000 to three romance scams. That's the hard way to buy love, huh?
(3)
Report

My elderly Aunt, before we realized she had dementia, would read magazines and send money in to all the charities advertised in them. Money she couldn't afford to spend. She'd send away for all the stupid trinkets and gadgets advertised in them. I think the best thing for parents is to help get them off mailing lists by going online to the website to take them off lists, or if you live locally to them, to have their mail go to a PO box and filter it, or ask a trusted neighbor to discretely look through their mail to remove the junk. There is no way to stop every piece of junk snail mail because of how mailing lists are created and sold. There are tons circulating and many still have old info on them but the senders can't know or don't care. A quick way to know if an email is real or not is to click on the sender's address to view it entirely. It's usually a dead giveaway because it's never even close to a legitimate-looking original address. That's the first line of defense. Then you just have a policy to never click a link in an email. Then, don't buy stuff that shows up in your FB or other feeds. It's usually crap made in China that's just destined for our landfills. "If it's too good to be true, it probably is." and "Caveat emptor!" (Latin: "Buyer, beware!")
(4)
Report

Click bait is everywhere. Never click on the ads that show up when you're online. My very internet savvy 36-yr old son (who runs his own business) was emailed an annual website domain renewal notice that came exactly on the renewal date that looked authentic so he clicked the payment link in it and his card was hacked. I've been doing our family business office admin for decades and every day I get scam emails that look so real it's amazing. Recently for my Microsoft 360 renewal or some such. Even my bank (WF) and 401k administrator had to send out warnings about email scamming to clients. The moral is to never pay from a link. ALWAYS pay through your app or by logging into your account at the website. Do not even call any phone numbers that appear in the emails. I'm not exaggerating: I get phishing (texts) and scamming attempts every. single. day.
(6)
Report

This discussion has been closed for comment. Start a New Discussion.
Start a Discussion
Subscribe to
Our Newsletter