Scam calls targeting Mecosta, Osceola County seniors rise | #datingscams #romancescams

BIG RAPIDS — Mary Flagg picked up the phone and was immediately met with feelings of shock. 

A robotic voice on the other end of the line claimed to be from the Walmart Fraud Prevention Center and had an emergency notification.

“We are calling to alert than an Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max and a Samsung Galaxy Fold 7 purchase has been made on your account,” the robotic voice said. “An amount of $2,999 will be deducted from your account. If you authorized the purchase, press one. If you did not authorize the purchase, press two.” 

Flagg, 75 from Hersey, said she was feeling some fear, “We don’t have that kind of money,” she thought. 

During the call, Flagg continued to reiterate that she and her husband, Bob, do not have the Walmart credit card and would not have made such a purchase. 

Flagg said she, “Got burned,” by someone calling from Social Security. She gave the caller her Social Security number, but the caller got the number wrong. When they called back, Flagg told them politely to, “Take a flying leap,” she said, and to go away. 

Calls like these are happening all over the country and a good deal of them are targeting older folks. It’s not just calls, either, and the schemes are changing with help from Artificial Intelligence. 

YouMail, a private call-blocking and voicemail company, publishes the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate the volume of robocalls in the U.S. There are an average of 125 million to 160 million robocalls a day in the United States, and the company estimates that about 35% of all robocalls nationwide are scam calls, equaling about 44 million to 56 million scam calls a day.

The Federal Trade Commission reported there were over 2.6 million “Do Not Call” complaints and reported more than 258 million active registrations on the National Do Not Call Registry. The FTC also reported many of these calls are targeted toward those 60 years and older. 

Likewise, the Federal Communications Commission says unwanted calls, including illegal and fake robocalls, are the top consumer complaint and a top consumer protection priority. 

Walmart’s fraud alert website lays out several different scenarios scammers are using to try and get information from people. Some of the scenarios include a distressed family member, scammers saying they captured a family member. In those instances, reach out to the family member in question. 

There are other scenarios, like the Flaggs, where stores can convincingly reach out and try to strike fear into victims. Online dating can also lead to similar issues, by asking for money or personal information without ever meeting. 

The website included key terms, including:

Phishing — A potential scammer sending legitmate-looking emails with links to try and steal personal information. For additional help: Look at the sender’s address. If there is suspicious looking addresses, it may be a scam. For example: Communications from Consumers Energy will always have an email from cmsenergy.com and never “cmsenergy@gmail.com.” The extra “gmail.com” typically means it’s a fraudulent email. There are reporting tools on each email application for potential phishing messages.

Vishing — Similar to “phishing,” this occurs over the phone. Scammers pose as trusted retailers or banks to try and get personal information, potentially by “verifying” personal information. Do not say anything, especially the word “Yes,” scammers can record your voice and manipulate the recording to confirm unauthorized activity. 

Smishing — This is combining “SMS” texting and “phishing.” This is simply scammers contacting targets over text message.

Walmart’s website adds that, “If you suspect you’ve been a victim of fraud, contact the Federal Trade Commission or the Consumer Fraud Division of your state Attorney General.” 

Justin Halladay, the director of the Osceola County Commission on Aging, said it’s important for everyone to remain diligent and verify any sort of information knowing that these communications can come from anywhere. 

“It could be emails, could be text, it could obviously be mailing,” Halladay said. “Any type of contact you get from someone.” 

If there’s a text message that comes in that looks suspicious, don’t click any links, don’t respond. If there’s a suspicious check, bring it to the bank to authenticate it. If there’s a phone call, do not say anything and hang up as, for the most part, phone calls cannot be authenticated. 

Just a reminder: if it’s too good to be true or too bizarre to be true, it most likely is. Stores, legal authorities and other government agencies will never contact by phone and ask for money or personal information.

“Don’t trust the number because the number can be cloned or ghosted to anything else,” Halladay said. “You’ve just got to be really wary and take away the idea that everyone is honest — especially phone calls and texts, don’t trust any of them. … If it’s something super important, they’ll try back again. If they try once, you don’t answer and they never try back again, it probably wasn’t legitimate in the first place.” 

Halladay said he and the COA staff will gladly help anyone that suspects they may have a potential scam on their hands. Halladay worked for the Osceola County Sheriff’s Office for 23 years, working his way to becoming the sheriff before he retired and has an expertise in recognizing potential scams. 

Halladay recalled when he first started at the COA, a senior woman in the center was showing him something where she was listing her favorite movie, the name of her first pet, type of her first car and having fun with it. He recognized immediately that those are security question prompts and scammers can harvest that information, enter the person’s email and click on “Forgot Password,” utilize the information to reset the password and get into the person’s account easily. 

“It’s just people have an innate trust in them, and you’ve got to kind of turn that off, which is not easy,” Halladay said. “But that’s what you have to do.”

When it comes to interacting with unrecognizable numbers and contacts, it’s better to just ignore it, Halladay said. 

A lot of these seniors are brought up to be polite their whole life, and to hang up on someone is a bad thing, but I tell them, don’t hesitate to hang up,” Halladay said. “We also teach them how to set their smartphones up or their other phones to block those numbers, to only accept phone calls from phone numbers that they want to.” 

Halladay doesn’t want to scare anyone, but it’s important to remain vigilant. 

“If there’s one word I tell people is just don’t become complacent,” Halladay said. “It’s really kind of frustrating because you don’t want to be one of those conspiracy (theory) people that doesn’t trust anything and questions everything.” 

More information on how to recognize and avoid scams or reporting scams is available online at ftc.gov.