Scammers are getting more and more clever – it’s no longer enough to ignore emails from Nigerian princes. Folks in the process of buying or selling a home are particularly susceptible to some of the latest scams. Tune in today to learn our best tips on how to avoid becoming a victim!
Video Transcriptgood morning good morning good morning to you Diana Randall bro here your I am the pickle lady we are your Prescot um realtor team that’s righty hope hopefully we’d love to be yeah love to represent you help you in your next chapter and something important we want to talk about yes we’re seeing it more and more especially for instance my uh my mother-in-law’s a little bit older and it’s really sick what goes on out there there are people who are very very wise very intelligent and they scam and they look up people of a certain age bracket and go after them and they are so so so convincing it’s scary yes um they should all be nominated for Oscars yes and how well they can convince and really real people in yeah used to be You’ get an email from was what was it the prince and what was the Haiti yeah in Haiti or no it was uh somewhere in Africa I forget anyway some people even fell for that yeah they fell for that now or you get on the yeah you get on the call and they’ll have like an Indian accent or a weird foreign accent uh scams have gotten professional they they really good they uh know how like what title company you’re working with they will learn the names of employees at the title company they will get your phone number and call you and really pretend to be those people and you and they are really good at what they do and chances are you have seen uh attempts at at scams I’ll name a couple of them you’ll probably recognize them okay so you get a text oh hey Susie are we still having lunch tomorrow yeah we’ll get I get those texts all the time that’s a scam hey that’s a scam don’t even answer don’t answer don’t answer because once you do they once you do proc they’re trying to they’re trying to uh sucker you in and get you conversing with them that’s a scam and I get this all the time I get emails from Geek Squad yeah and it looks like a real invoice a real bill I mean it is down to the color of the bill everything and uh I don’t do the technology Mr bro does yeah so I’ll be like did we do this this is like a $600 bill is this something I I didn’t know about because you do the technology and he’s like scam scam scam scam scam scam and so you have to be in this day and age so very very careful yes uh when we tell you wait till you hear from title do not accept instructions from an email uh chances are someone has even if it’s encrypted will still try to break in and misrepresent themselves yes yes and say now you need to wire the money the change there’s been changes in your wire yes there’s never changes in a wire especially to a title company yes so when in doubt this is all we can emphasize over and over and over when in doubt whether whether it’s a phone call whether it’s a text even if it’s an email whatever if you’re in doubt about anything hang up call Randall and I if we’re helping you or call your title company if they’re helping you during the sale and say I just got a phone call I’m I hung up I’m calling back just to make sure this is legit yes once you get and they will always they will try to get you not to talk to anyone else uh if they tell you not to talk to anyone else you know it’s a scam that’s a tip absolutely so um one thing you need to understand is we are all of a certain age yep and we get older every day and we become more vulnerable every day which is sad There are some evil we have some friends who are older than us yes uh very sharp and yet they have become victims of scams uh part of that is just the scammers are very good and part of it I think is that you know we get to a certain age we get more vulnerable we get more uh credulous you know I don’t know but especially a lot of them will bring in grandchildren or children and say your daughter was in an accident uh we need money and da D and occasionally you know people go to the bank to get cashier checks to they’ll go to uh Walmart to get a cashier’s check and thank goodness the employees are usually like H I don’t know and they’ll maybe flag it which is good there are still good people who try to help people who are being taken advantage of yes but every now and then it seems legit and everybody seems legit you just go through yeah they they are very good and it is rampant we are hearing it more and more I’m seeing it myself more and more uh why this is not a priority for our government just astounds me hon yeah they need to be in prison for the rest of their lives yeah yeah it’s I mean it it can really uh affect people’s retirement oh absolutely destroy lives absolutely horrible anyway please be careful and when we tell you if you’re in doubt of anything call us call your title call whoever you need to call to triple double quadruple check and don’t don’t share it with somebody share it with somebody share it with somebody call your daughter yeah it’s a lot harder to fool two people so even if you’re embarrassed and be like you know son this seems really true uh but I don’t want to look like I’m stupid and falling for it yeah always present it to another an objective second party third party and they’ll be like no yeah you know it’s okay it’s okay to run it by people and and say am I being stupid or is this legit oh and one other tip I do it all the time with rain I’m like is this us is this not us is yeah it looks that legitimate looks like a bill you know either they want you to pay it which case they have your money or they want you to call to talk about it which case they have something else going but it’s uh if you have a landline that’s now a scam line that’s that’s the landline means you’re of a certain generation they know you’re older and you’re more suceptible so get that’s another tip get rid of your land land it doesn’t help you just owning a landline informs people that you could be a mark U so get rid of your landline get rid of your landline yeah so anyway that’s our little tip of the day uh we’re hearing more about it and we’re worried about our people out there and we want you to be safe and not sorry yes so um anyway call your kids if you’re worried call your representative whatever it anybody and just say help me out is this I’m worried am I okay and uh it’s always good to run it by yeah absolutely when and doubt question question question that’s right so anyway that’s our little tip and we hope that you take it to heart uh I know randle’s my source I’m always like is this true and he’s like nope and I’m like I almost fell for it so anyway uh we want to make sure everybody’s okay yeah absolutely we want to take care of you absolutely so that is our tip for the day and don’t fall for it my friends don’t fall for it so take care have a great rest of your day and we sure hope that you call us if you come in town we’d love to take you around show you all around our lovely town and see some great houses absolutely so take care and have a wonderful rest of your day take care bye bye