Washington County Sergeant/Investigator Chad Ellis was giving a class to seniors at Pleasantview about how to identify and protect yourself from scams, when a scammer called one the senior’s phones. They’d been calling up to 20 times a day, so Sergeant Ellis answered the phone. He said, ‘I’m giving a class on scams right now, would you like to go on speakerphone and explain the scam you’re running?” And then the caller hung up.

Scams, especially those targeting seniors, are prevalent and common. And they can be hard to identify because the scammers are always changing up their strategies and tactics to try to get information from their targets.

“They have these call lists, and they just start calling numbers. I call it fishing. They’re hoping that someone will pick up the phone and buy into what they’re talking about,” Ellis said. “It can get bad pretty quick, whether it’s a grandson or granddaughter who’s in jail in another country or a government scam, if they sell the problem well enough and the target buys into it, they start working on getting the information out of them.”

Many scammers will impersonate a government entity such as the Social Security Administration, the IRS or Medicare. They know how to make the victim worried that there is something wrong with their finances and then will slowly try to get as much information as possible, information that can be used later to further the scam.

“They prey upon those things that people think about,” Ellis said. “For our community people, they’re just afraid to say no or hang up, because they’re curious or want to hear what they’re going to say, so they listen. The longer you listen, the more they keep working on you. All they’re trying to do is keep you on the phone and getting you to second guess yourself and start giving up some of your information.”

Even little bits of seemingly innocent information can be used against a victim.

“They’ll say, ‘Hey we’re calling about your grandson,’ and they’ll just throw a name out there and then the person will correct them and say, ‘I don’t have a grandson named John, but I have a grandson named Tom,’ and the scammer will latch on to that,” Ellis said. “They’ll keep track of the fact that you have a grandson named Tom. All you’ve done is given information to the scammers that they can use against you. They take your name and keep track. Like, ‘I called this day and got a grandson’s name, and I called this day, and I got an address, and I called this day and got a date of birth.’ They’re relentless and they keep the database rolling.”

Ellis said romance scams are prevalent too, and can seem innocent because the scammer isn’t asking for bank information, but often ask for prepaid cards such as Green Dot cards. The scammers will reiterate that they don’t want bank information, so the victim feels reassured. But then they convince the victim to get several Green Dot cards, often with thousands of dollars on them, and then give them the numbers off the back. At that point, the money is gone.

Ellis said these scams can even involve extortion.

“A single person has met somebody online and thinks they’ve built a relationship and things are sent back and forth that might be inappropriate pictures or videos, Ellis said. “And then the scammer will say, ‘Now I have this video of you and if you don’t do what I say, I’ll be really embarrassing for your family. If you don’t pay me $5,000, I’ll release this video to your family.’”

Ellis said one the best ways to catch a scam is to hang up the phone and then call the number back.

“If someone calls you, it’s OK to hang up and then call that number right back. If it goes to some kind of phone bank that no one answers, that should be a concern for you because if it’s a real government entity, there should be a phone menu to navigate,” he said.

Ellis said that many scammers will call from local numbers, because by using a burner phone, they’re able to program it to call from any number. Don’t trust a call just because it’s a local number.

Ellis also encourages seniors to discuss any suspicious call they receive with their family, friends or loved ones, who might be able to better spot a scam from their outside perspective.

And don’t be afraid to hang up.

“No one says, ‘Hey, I’m not talking to you,’ and hangs up the phone because they just want to be nice and don’t want to be rude. You’ve got to be rude. Hang up and do your own research,” Ellis said. “They get sucked in and don’t think to back out of it and make some phone calls to see if it’s legit because they’re just trying to be helpful and they’re nice. Don’t be afraid to be rude.”