A scam can start with a simple phone call or text and end with thousands of dollars gone.
Scammers may pose as banks, recognizable companies or even someone claiming to be helping. And according to a new report, Nevada seniors are among the most frequently targeted in the country.
Retirement Living ranked Nevada the second-riskiest state for senior scams, using data from the FBI and Federal Trade Commission.
Nevada has the highest rate of fraud reports among seniors nationwide, with 748 reports for every 100,000 people age 60 and older. That is well above the national average of 522.
“These scams have gotten more sophisticated over time,” said Jalyn Rodriguez, media relations for Retirement Living, who urged people to slow down when something seems suspicious.
The report found the most common scam involves business impostors — scammers pretending to represent a legitimate company. The warning signs are not always obvious, and scammers may know a person’s name, know what company they use and sound convincing enough to keep them on the phone.
“I think something that they can do before that even happens is if you get something, a message that’s a little bit suspicious, act slow. Scammers like to create this false sense of urgency. So you just take your time. If it’s saying, act fast, act right now, don’t worry about that. Take your time and do the research to see if this is a scam,” Rodriguez said.
Rodriguez said losses vary by age group in Nevada, with “younger seniors” losing about $250 per scam, seniors ages 70 to 79 losing about $648, and seniors above 80 losing about $5,000.
“And the way each age group is targeted changes too,” Rodriguez said. “Scammers tend to reach out to those younger seniors through social media, websites, apps, while seniors over 80 are more likely to be reached by phone.”
Rodriguez recommends taking basic steps to make personal accounts harder for scammers to access, including using different passwords for different accounts and enabling two-factor authentication.
If someone believes they have been the victim of a scam, Rodriguez recommends reporting it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3.
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