It’s an unfortunate truth that there are unscrupulous people who exploit others out of their money — maybe a few hundred dollars or one’s life savings. Whole organizations employ sophisticated operations to convince you or someone you love to hand over a lot of money.

The scam industry steals $20 billion a year.

I’d like to share some tips and resources for you and the people you care about, especially those 65 and older.

I. Finding Legitimate Charity Organizations

During the holiday season many people donate to charities. Unfortunately, unscrupulous organizations convince many they are doing good when they are in fact wasting or pocketing a major portion of their donations.

There are so many good causes one can donate to and there is no shortage of need. However, there is great variety in how effectively various charities spend their money. To find out how much of your donation actually goes toward the intended cause (versus administrative costs, marketing, etc.), use Charity Navigator.

Their ratings will show you how your gift can be be maximized to serve the causes you care about most.

II. Avoiding Email and Telephone Scammers

Scammers, in my opinion, are some of the most despicable individuals. A single scam call center can swindle up to $60,000 per day, and they target mostly senior citizens — 90% of their money is stolen from people 65 and older by exploiting their empathy and naiveté. Typically, they call only during business hours as those are the times they are most likely to catch retired people.

So what can you do?

The FTC has a very good list of common signs to alert you to the likelihood you are being scammed.

To briefly summarize:

1. Scammers pretend to be from an organization you know (Apple, Microsoft, IRS, Medicare, Social Security, etc.).
2. Scammers say there’s a problem or a prize.
3. Scammers pressure you to act immediately.
4. Scammers tell you to pay in a specific way (cryptocurrency, cash, wire transfer, gift cards).

To avoid phone scams:

1. Block unwanted calls and text messages.
2. Don’t give out personal or financial information in response to a request you didn’t expect.
3. Resist the pressure to act immediately.
4. Know how scammers tell you to pay – be very suspicious of requests you use cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or gift cards.
5. Stop and talk to someone you trust – I think this is the best advice. Don’t be shy or ashamed to ask for help. If you have already paid a suspected scammer, don’t let shame prevent you from telling someone ASAP if you think you’ve been scammed. If you act quickly enough, you may be able to stop or block a payment to a scammer.

If you are interested in seeing some entertaining videos showing scammers getting caught by experienced computer experts and engineers, here are a couple:

Mark Rober (the porch pirate glitter bomb guy) made two videos. In the first, he catches a scammer trying to steal thousands of dollars:

But in doing so, he pulls back the cover on a multimillion-dollar international scamming scheme. Using a team of experts, he infiltrates and seriously pranks a large scam call center in India:

People’s Call Center 2023
A group of hackers and volunteers led by professional scam baiter Pierogi spent a week fighting back against scam call centers:

III. Detecting and Avoiding AI Voice Scams

Unfortunately, artificial intelligence (AI) technology has advanced to the level where someone’s voice can be reproduced very convincingly.

Here’s how the scam works:

People receive calls from someone who sounds like a friend or a relative urgently in need of money. This technology is called voice cloning, and it sounds amazingly authentic. Like the scammers above, they often pressure you to act immediately and to send the money via wire transfer or gift cards.

The quickest and simplest way to avoid these convincing scams is to call them back to verify.

Here’s a news story about someone who almost got scammed:

I hope this information helps keep you and those you care about safe.