Thank you for the suggestion. No, she wouldn’t consider giving anyone power of attorney; like so many very old people, she can take care of her self, thank-you-very-much, and does not recognize that there’s any underlying problem.
Unfortunately she has no family except a couple of nephews who’d rob her much more effectively than a Nigerian Prince could ever hope to do. She wouldn’t trust my mother to be involved in her affairs. I suppose eventually a doctor may indeed call one of the disreputable nephews.
I count myself very lucky that my mother is rather more on the ball than the roommate is. She’s not in much danger, I don’t think, of being scammed very soon by such an obvious scheme. She IS in danger of giving all her money to a TV preacher and/or Save The Children, which is of course scummy but not technically scammy.
She, too, wouldn’t ever consider giving me or anyone else power of attorney. The very idea is an outrage to her. I’ve mentioned earlier I owe her car mechanic a huge debt of gratitude for telling her her car was unfixable; it sits on four flat tires now and her driving days are done, not a goddamn moment too soon. I think he installed a device to drain the battery continually, not even kidding. When he saw her drive into his shop, he’d have known she had no business driving anywhere. It was absolutely terrifying, an accident just waiting to happen, and that unknown person saved me from having to call the police on her, bless him.
I get a lot of scam emails and messages (I collect them on purpose). I’m seeing a significant increase in the number of scams targeting people who have already been scammed before - for example emails saying things like:
This is FBI special agents, David Jackson. I was delegated along side others by the United Nations to come over to Africa to investigate fraudsters who had been in the business of swindling foreigners especially those that has one form of transaction/contracts and another. Please be informed that in the course of our investigation, we detected that your name and details in our Scammed Monitoring Network. We also found out that you were scammed of a huge sum of money by scammers via Western union and MoneyGram. Be informed here that in a bid to alleviate the suffering of scammed victims, the United Nations initiated this compensation program and therefore, you are entitled to the sum of Two Million Six Hundred Thousand United States Dollars (US$2,600,000.00 USD) for being a victim.
Of course, there’s an administration fee or insurance premium or legal paperwork processing charge or something to pay first…
Yeah I dunno how they handle who no longer look like they’re in high school. I got mine when I moved in at age 50 and I don’t look that much different now (I keep telling myself).
In theory, yes. In reality, no. The old licenses don’t have bar codes or security features and will not be accepted by most stores, banks or government agencies.
I don’t really know, the 70’s maybe? My first license (1975) was laminated and was starting to peel at the corners when I finally gave it up about 15 years ago.
By that time the polls were really the only place I could use it without it being a huge bother. Young folks didn’t know what it was and old farts wanted to reminisce.
I would be interested in an account of how scam-baiting has evolved over the past 15 years or so. I tried it a couple of times, but never in a big way.
I used to get scam calls from live people, most of whom were named Paul or Susan and had heavy Indian accents. Now all I get are recordings. I respond very profanely and there is a response saying goodbye. But one time the response was “Well, you dont have to be rude!” and they hung up on me.
I have mixed feelings about this, but a couple of times I’ve said, “is this how you saw yourself making a living?” as they got started, and they hung up on me.
Under new rules, would-be drivers of small vehicles, small cars with automatic gears and mopeds who are aged 70-plus must also be assessed for memory, judgment and responsiveness, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security said at a press briefing today. Such applicants must also submit the results of their annual physical check-ups.
I wish the US had that rule when my father was alive. The man, with me in the car, drove down the wrong side of the road thrice in one day. If I had not been there, no telling how many people would’ve died. He passed away in his sleep at home, not like the old joke.
I can only speak about the domain of advance fee email scammers, since those are the focus of my scambaiting; It’s definitely changed; it’s become harder to bait scammers as they have become more focused on driving the conversation toward extraction of money from the victim, and way less tolerant of diversions and nonsense.
One thing I am seeing more and more commonly is that the entire scam is preloaded into the initial email, so whereas it used to be an exciting, tantalising, vague opener, then a bit of foreplay conversation to get the victim on the hook, then the scam, now, it tends to be the whole story in the email, including the request for the advance fee, as well as statements about how the fee cannot be deducted from the fund, and that if you can’t pay the fee, don’t bother replying - my guess is that they are trying to minimise the amount of effort expended on scams that aren’t likely to run the whole distance.
The paradoxical upside of this is that, if you do succeed in diverting the scammer down an unproductive path, the meltdown at the end tends to be a bit more spectacular.
