Make sure your clients know how to protect themselves from the latest scams.  We might know what to watch for, but do many of your clients?  Age and intelligence isn’t a factor.  All a scam artist has to do is figure out a targets weakness.  It’s not as exciting as it sounds.  Here are just three examples:

Taylor is 18 and is in her first year of college.  She goes out with some friends, dings the side of her car, but doesn’t tell her parents in fear of the consequences.  A few weeks later Taylor receives a phone call saying that she owes money and there is a warrant out for her arrest unless she pays it over the phone.  Thankfully, Taylor was so upset over going to jail that she called her Dad, who quickly informed her that no, she’s not going to jail, and explained how this scam works.  Taylor is an intelligent, although naive, young lady attending college that didn’t lose money from the scam, but the thought of going to jail certainly terrified her.

Angela is 78 and has recently moved closer to her grandchildren.  Angela has looked over the shoulders of her kids and grandchildren as they maneuvered their computer screens.  She loves keeping in touch with family and friends, so her kids show her how to write emails and post on Facebook.  Angela loves it, but if it’s not those two applications she is lost.  One day Angela receives a phone call from Microsoft saying that her computer has a virus and they need to connect to it to fix it.  She starts to give the person on the line all of her information.  One of her kids happened to hear how the conversation was going and stopped her from continuing.  It didn’t take more than a day for a few charges to start showing up in her bank account.   She had to speak to the bank’s fraud department and open a different account.

Diane is 54 and lives alone.  She is a widow that has been lonely ever since her kids moved away.  Diane loves horses and joined a horse discussion group on Facebook.  She enjoys talking to everyone in this group and over time feels close to them.  One of the younger men in the group says he lives in another state and has fallen on hard times.  He has two horses that he loves and cares for, but he had to chose the horses care over his own.  In the following months Diane starts to feel like this young man needs her in his life.  He says he now lives in the barn with the horses and has nothing to his name.  She feels sorry for him so she asks for an address that she can send a few things to.  A few months of her sending staples to him he has a grand idea.  He tells Diane that a toy manufacturer saw that he was down on his luck, loved his horses, and offered him a deal.  He would make his horses into a toy, but he would have to invest $2,000 up front.  His tears over not having the money moved Diane. The young man then asks Diane to go into business with him, because he only had a portion of the money. Feeling as if one of her kids were heartbroken, she felt she had to help him.  Even though she really couldn’t spare that much money, she sent him $1500.  Two weeks later the young man disappeared from Diane’s life.

Don’t let your clients be victims.  Georgia has a great Consumer Protection Guide for Seniors that is printable.

The Federal Trade Commission has an excellent plethora of information covering all consumer needs along with printable guides.

Tired of telemarketers taking up your time?  Make sure you add your name and number to the Do Not Call list at donotcall.gov.