Frail and elderly, initiatives against attempted scams
Growing number of initiatives to curb attempts to bypass the elderly and frail
From the police to associations and citizens' initiatives: in the field to unmask attempts to defraud the elderly and frail. The watchword is prevention. And, with this in mind, the various vademecums have been created in which, in addition to providing concrete examples, suggestions are also given on how to behave when encountering attempted fraud.
The attempts being made
The common denominator of attempted scams is always surprise, but also fear, since affections and health conditions are involved. Such as the message that arrives these days from a number with area code 352, which says: 'Please contact our CUP offices Single Primary Centre urgently on 893.. for important communications concerning you'.
The bank's fake message
Another message that arrives by text message and resembles the bank's alert is the one reporting a debit payment of several thousand euros for transactions on e-commerce sites and the suggestion to call the anti-fraud number, which, however, is that of a mobile phone not included in the bank's emergency numbers.
Calls
In the scam scene, there is no shortage of phone calls from fake police officers or fake lawyers who make the victim believe that one of their relatives has been involved in a car accident or has been arrested. The victim will be asked for a sum of money in return for providing medical or legal assistance to a loved one in distress. If the scammed person accepts, the caller tells him or her that an assistant or a plainclothes policeman will appear shortly to collect the cash.
The curriculum
Then there are the other phone calls, with dialling codes +33, +34 saying that the CV, never sent to any address, was selected for new job opportunities with sky-high salaries.
