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Advice & More September 2017

Dollar Sense

A Pair of Current Scams that Specifically Target Seniors: What You Need to Know to Avoid Becoming the Next Victim

By Teresa Ambord

When you consider how many seniors are isolated from family members, if a thief could gain access to change a beneficiary, this type of theft might never be discovered at all. If you have any account, contact the company to ensure your beneficiary is as you intended.

The Beneficiary Bamboozle

“Sharp as a whip.” That’s how Janice Bennet’s son Marty Caffrey describes his 92-year- old mom. She still manages her modest investments, with a little help from him. So imagine her surprise when she opened an email from her investment company, Vanguard, telling her that her eight children were no longer set to be the beneficiaries of her IRA. Instead the Lemurian Fellowship — which she’d never heard of, three thousand miles away — was now her sole beneficiary.

A quick call to Vanguard confirmed that indeed, there was a written beneficiary change request on file. What happened? It would take awhile and some outside help to find out.

After restoring the correct beneficiaries, Bennet and Caffrey asked Vanguard to send the case to their fraud department, to find out who initiated this unauthorized change. Weeks passed without any answers, so Caffrey sought the help of a site called Bamboozled.com.

Bamboozled was able to determine that it was a processing error, based on another account holder with a very similar name and account number. Vanguard was embarrassed and apologetic. But suppose she had not been alert and then diligent to fix the problem – the “fix” would not have been so easy, because the money would’ve gone directly to the Lemurian Fellowship before anybody knew it was on its way.

When you consider how many seniors are isolated from family members, if a thief could gain access to change a beneficiary, this type of theft might never be discovered at all. If you have any account, contact the company to ensure your beneficiary is as you intended. Also inquire about how you will be notified if a beneficiary change occurs. The same is true for life insurance policies and any other plan that includes a beneficiary.

“The elderly and their families should immediately check to make sure beneficiary designations are accurate and have not been altered for investment accounts and life insurance policies,” said Janice Bennet. “If this happened to me, it could happen to anybody and probably has.”
That’s great advice, not just for the elderly but for anyone with accounts that have named beneficiaries. Also check to ensure that you updated your beneficiary choices based on life changes, such as divorce or added children or grandchildren.

– (This information was adapted from an article by Karin Price Mueller, of NJ Advance Media.)

 

“Hello, I’m with the Social Security Administration…”

Not so fast! If you get a call from someone claiming to be from the Social Security Administration (SSA) – unless you were expecting the call – your safest bet may be to doubt the source of the call and hang up. The SSA’s Office of the Inspector General says individuals have been receiving fake calls, mostly from the 323 area code. So your first action should be to notice the phone number.

It is true that the SSA will sometimes contact citizens by phone, generally for customer service purposes, but they will never ask for sensitive personal information such as your SSN by phone. A thief may claim to be an employee of the SSA. For instance, the SSA says bogus agents have been calling SS recipients, telling them they are due for a cost of living adjustment (such as 1.7%) that will increase their SS benefits. Once they’ve got your attention they try to get you to give them your SS number and/or other personally identifiable information, such as your bank account, birth date, parents’ names, etc.

Thieves add urgency to the call by telling you to get the increase you are entitled to, they must have the information or they can’t verify your identity. Chances are, they will attempt to make you believe they already have all this information, and they need you to verify it so they can be sure they’ve reached the right person.

Not only are SS recipients receiving live calls from fake SSA agents, but as of last spring, the agency was also warning the public about fake recorded calls. These calls inform citizens that their SS benefits have been suspended. One of the recordings prompts listeners to call a number. If you call it, the person who answers tells you that there’s a warrant out for your arrest, and demands payment.

If you receive a suspicious call, the SSA asks that you take a moment, write down the number, and report it to the Office of the Inspector General, at 1-800-269-0271, or go online at: oig/ssa.gov/report. Not sure that it’s a fake call? Report it anyway. Better to err on the side of safety.

 

Teresa Ambord is a former accountant and Enrolled Agent with the IRS. Now she writes full time from her home, mostly for business, and about family when the inspiration strikes.

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