Outsmarting Scammers

When retired educator Eileen passes a rack of gift cards in a store, she still gets choked up. The sight of them brings back a time in her life when a scam cost her more than $40,000 and, she says, made her an “emotional wreck.”

“I couldn’t imagine I would fall for something like this. But I was recently divorced and met this man through a dating site online. I just wanted to make some friends and have dinner occasionally,” recalls Eileen, who asked that her real name be withheld to protect her privacy. “Over the three months, we had pleasant conversations—he even talked about getting married. I told him that I wasn’t looking for a husband, but a companion to go out with on dates. He seemed very nice, but he certainly wasn’t.”

After a few months, the man asked Eileen to buy gift cards, and he would pay her back,  explaining that if she bought them on her credit cards and he deposited the repayments in her account, it would improve her credit. Initially, it seemed to work that way, and she felt she was helping him out.

“Then I noticed that his deposits were not being processed. … The money was gone and so was he,” she says. “It was just a disaster for me. All I could think about was all the ways I could have used that money or passed it along to my grandchildren.”

Eileen is not alone. Some 78 percent of adults have faced a scam, and 1 in 4 have been victims in the last year, according to the watchdog group Global Anti-Scam Alliance. And people over 60 can be the most vulnerable, often falling victim to investment or romance scams, or fraudsters impersonating friends or family members, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports.

NEA-Retired community steps up

“I think retired educators are very good about talking to each other about these scams,” said Marty Shapiro, a retired educator from Largo, Fla., who lost about $3,400 to a scam through a fake PayPal site.

“It is a huge problem among Retired members and getting bigger, so we all have to get the word out,” says Susan Jaysnovitch, a retired business education teacher and former president of the New Jersey Retirees’ Education Association. She has studied the problem and offers advice to NEA-Retired members across her state.

“I’ve spoken to so many who have been scammed, and they are targeted because scammers assume they have savings and may be less familiar with rapidly evolving technology,” she said. “Scammers exploit trust and emotions. Many educators are naturally very caring and considerate individuals.”

Sarah Brown, a retired language arts teacher and adjunct college professor, in Crete, Neb., has testified before her state legislature, advocating for laws that rein in swindlers. One proposal aims to reduce the availability of cryptocurrency machines—often used to deposit fraudulently acquired funds; another requires phone companies to take responsibility for scam calls and social media platforms to remove phony posts.

While an effort to ban cryptocurrency machines failed, Nebraska now requires a fraud warning sticker be attached to the machines. Brown and other retired educators across the state are busy affixing stickers to every machine that doesn’t have one.

“I think it is important for educators to do their part,” she says. “And retired groups are stepping up—holding programs to inform members and speaking to each other about the issue. It is so important.”

The trust trap

Con artists sometimes masquerade as familiar people or organizations to earn your trust, warns Rachel, who has helped organize scam-awareness programs for her NEA-Retired affiliate, in Wyoming, and also asked for her real name to be withheld. A scammer may call and say a family member or friend is in trouble and needs help, sometimes even using artificial intelligence to duplicate the voice of the known person.

“People are worried and of course want to help, but this is one way scammers are successful—by playing on that emotion,” she says.

Romance scams, like the one Eileen experienced, are among the most prominent scams among seniors, Brown says. They prey on the excitement and promise of a relationship and try to build trust. Then the perpetrator asks for help or gains access to the victim’s personal information.

Ann Myers, a former elementary school teacher living in Scottsdale, Ariz., says a retired educator she knows received an email from someone who claimed to be a leader in her church. The scammer encouraged her to buy $1,000 worth of gift cards and send them to a specific address. Fortunately, an alert department store clerk cautioned the woman to double check the source, which turned out to be fraudulent.

Rachel once received an email that appeared to come from the president of her local, asking her to pay a vendor through an online application and promising she would get reimbursed. She noticed the sender’s email address was not legitimate and found the message was fake. “It would have been very easy to fall for that because the names of our officers were on it,” she says.

(Your union typically would not make a request like this. When in doubt, verify directly with the union before making a payment.)

Linda McGeehan, who is a former president of Florida’s North Pinellas County Retired Educators Association and has scheduled speakers on the topic for her local, says she and neighbors were victims of a door-to-door scam.

“This young woman came to the door looking somewhat bedraggled and selling magazine subscriptions. I didn’t need any more magazines, but she said I could subscribe and they would donate them to a local hospital. She had gathered the names of neighbors and told me they were giving. That was convincing,” she recalls.

Fortunately, after reflecting on the interaction, McGeehan had second thoughts and canceled the check. Then she let her neighbors know about the scam.

What to look out for:

• Be wary of online relationships where the person is unwilling to provide the usual personal information or is vague about important aspects of their lives. 
• Receive a call from a loved one in trouble? Verify with family, friends, or police. Consider a family code word that a caller can be asked to repeat. 
• Never give money or personal info to solicitors who come to your door—donate directly to organizations instead.
• Check phone numbers against the official website of an organization.
• Make sure email addresses are legitimate. Click on the sender’s name to reveal the full email address. If it’s a scam, the address will have little or no connection to the company. 
• When in doubt, verify the source.

Threats to pensions, Medicare, and Social Security

Scammers frequently target retired educators because they often have a comfortable level of retirement savings. Investment scams that tap into retirement funds are responsible for the biggest losses among all types of fraud, according to the FBI. Offering promises of better returns or new opportunities, such as crypto, criminals try to obtain investment account information and request a funds transfer to another account.

Medicare scams are also common, Jaysnovitch says. Some retirees hope to enhance their Medicare or supplemental medical insurance plans, but find the arrangements are deceptive or offer less than promised. Another hoax begins with fake representatives telling victims they need a new insurance card and requesting Medicare or financial information.

Rachel notes that Social Security schemes are on the rise as well. They may show up as an email or text about a fake problem or a note saying you have extra funds coming to you. The crooks might ask for personal information or encourage you to click a link, which then allows malware to be installed on the computer and gives the bad guys access to your device.

Con artists might also pretend to be from Medicare, Social Security or a government agency, demanding immediate verification of personal information. Any such communications should be viewed skeptically.

What to look out for:

• The Social Security Administration, Medicare, and the IRS will rarely text you about a serious issue.
• Be suspicious of any message like this—especially one asking you to withdraw funds.
• Contact the agency directly to confirm whether the message is real.

Crimes of opportunity

Michelle Murphy, a retired educator from Monroe Township, N.J., was trying to make certain she did not have two software subscriptions with Microsoft. She looked up a phone number on the firm’s website and thought she was talking to a company representative. She wasn’t.

“The person at the number I had contacted said I was owed a refund of around $279, but they would round it up to $300. I said to just send me a check for the refund. They said they had to issue the refund on my computer directly and needed to have access to my computer,” she recalls.

As the transaction unfolded, she noticed peculiar activity and ended the call. She later found out she had landed on a phony Microsoft website.

Murphy now very deliberately reports scams and talks to others in the NEA-Retired community about how to avoid them, particularly those offering “something for nothing.”

Myers has heard of fellow retirees who have fallen for schemes suggesting they won a sweepstakes or were due money from a deceased relative or an “unclaimed property” site.

Also beware of travel websites that offer special one-time deals that seem legitimate but then request private information, Rachel warns.

What to look for:

• If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• Be wary of offers of money or rewards, especially if the offer is available for a limited time and if they ask for personal or financial information. 
• Anyone seeking access to your device should be suspect.

Technology hoaxes

Threats related to technology are among the most common with seniors, according to the FTC. Jaysnovitch notes that “urgent” pop-up messages appear on certain websites, claiming the person’s computer has been hacked or mysteriously “compromised,” and that they must immediately click a link or call a number to fix the problem.

Rachel received more than one message supposedly from her email service, saying the firm was “discontinuing old email accounts” and that she needed to click a link to update her email. Another, purportedly from a well-known television streaming service, asked her to respond to “unlock thousands of shows and movies instantly.”

She also knows an NEA-Retired member whose computer got hacked. And when the person found a phone number online for a familiar tech-repair firm, the firm also turned out to be fraudulent. The representative asked the woman to allow access to her computer. While the logo on the website looked legitimate, the site was a fake, Rachel says.

What to look out for:

• Scammers count on seniors being less tech-savvy. Avoid anyone who threatens you with a tech problem or offers a "fix" that requires access to your computer or personal info.
• A pop-up warning about a virus is a scam. Close your browser and shut down your computer immediately.
• When searching online, skip the sponsored links at the top of results.
• Check the website address closely. Does it mimic a well-known site with a small change—a misspelled word, or .co instead of .com? If so, that’s a scam.
• Look at the company logo. A slightly altered version of a company's real logo is a big red flag. 

Scare tactics

“Many [scams] are psychological traps because they create panic,” Jaysnovitch says. “Victims will say they were not thinking clearly.”  

Some retired educators have received threats of legal action from a fake law firm or false notices about an unpaid traffic ticket, tax return errors, or failure to show up for jury duty, Rachel says. Others have been notified that they needed to replenish an account covering highway tolls.

Shapiro was surprised he fell for the PayPal scam. He received an email about a suspicious $500 charge on his PayPal account. When he clicked on the provided link, it went to a PayPal site. Then he was asked to get online with representatives and transfer funds to cover the charge, unknowingly giving the scammers access to his account.

"I think I am pretty smart about these things. I was the administrator for a stem and technology school, but this was very convincing, and I was concerned about having this issue unresolved," he says.

What to look out for:  

• Scammers try to alarm you, so you'll react fast. Take time to assess the threat before responding.
• Verify the message with a reliable source—call the actual company or organization (never the number in the email) or check your account directly.
• Your best defense: pause, think, and verify.