Persistent phone scammer

[WiseOne]

I was happily doing some work this afternoon when I got a text alert from my mother's credit card account: she'd just spent $400 at a local CVS. Uh-oh!!

I called her right away. She was just on her way home from CVS where she bought Google Play gift cards. Somebody from the Geek Squad called and said she needed to renew the service contract on her computer. Hmm, sounds familiar, it's exactly the scam that was used a few weeks ago to bilk her out of $3000. Except this time it was a guy named Allen instead of Leo. And he called her right there in the parking lot to give him the card numbers - it was all over before I got that text.

The big question is, how the heck did those phone calls get through to her? I have her iPhone on the "silence unknown callers" setting. She said the calls rang on her phone.

I'll know more when I see her tomorrow (so much for work...will need to take another day off, ugh) to inspect her phone, but now I'm wondering if that guy last month somehow got access to her phone and is inserting contacts to get around the silencing. Does anybody know how that might have been done, or how I can tell this is happening? I also thought to completely block unknown calls using the parental controls, but unfortunately it's really buggy - it blocked calls from known contacts if the name didn't match up exactly.

I checked her home phone account, and several calls from unknown parties went through her landline, which I'd had forwarded to her cell phone and then unplugged it. I'd intended to port it to a cell phone and then to a google voice number, when I have time for such escapades. I've now forwarded it to my google voice number instead. Verizon's idea of call forwarding is to forward maybe half the calls, so I guess the rest will go to voice mail.

[Vil]

From Apple support page:
To turn on Silence Unknown Callers, go to Settings > Phone, then scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers, and turn on the feature. Calls from unknown numbers are silenced and sent to your voicemail, and appear in your recent calls list.

Incoming calls will come through from people that are saved in your contacts list, recent calls list, and from Siri Suggestions to let you know who’s calling based on phone numbers included in your emails or text messages.

What about the bolded ?
Also thinking of the possibility that some messenger-like application installed on her iPhone might simulate calling.
That would surely pass through the native silencing.
My grand dad was frequent subject of such scam attempts, so I know the bastards can be really inventive..

[WiseOne]

Could have been spoofing a known number stored to the contacts of the iPhone. It's trivial to make it appear that you are calling from any number you want, so if they compromised her once, and know at least someone in her contacts list, they can call making it appear to come from that contact list number.

As far as your idea the scammers may have inserted themselves as a contact, perhaps they emailed her an ICA contacts file, which she clicked, and it added their contact that way. Never click links in email. Actually, if you're older than 80 and don't have a CISSP, don't even use email.

If only there was some kind of encrypted messaging app that could be installed, that the scammers won't be able to get to, and you could set that app up with all of her friends/family that need it?

I bet you're on target with that, TF. I'll find out tomorrow morning when I check her phone. I was thinking also to go through and delete all unneeded contacts, plus of course any ones that appear on her call history.

She uses Apple's regular text messages but only rarely. I check those frequently for spam content and delete anything I find. I can just clear those out.

I've been thinking to get rid of her email access but she would hate me for that beyond words. Maybe I can get away with unlinking it from her phone. She typically reads emails on the iPad anyway.

It's crazy how I'm having to severely restrict her digital life & communications because of these horrible crooks. That the federal government refuses to do anything about because they're too busy funding gender neutral bathrooms in Pakistan.

[WiseOne]

If there were such a thing as a scam protection service, believe me I would have my mom buy it. A project for you perhaps? Sounds like a winner of a business! A combination of prevention measures plus an insurance product maybe?

The iPhone provides the best scam protection available, but implementing the required setup for the non-tech savvy would be useful. The iPhone has unfortunately become very complicated - rather a departure from Steve Jobs' initial vision. One thing I figured out: I turned my mom's iPhone into a picture phone using shortcuts. I filled her home screen with those plus the few apps she uses regularly, and the clock & calendar to help with time orientation. Simulates those $100 landline-only devices advertised on Alzheimer's websites, except better and for free. And I could do it on her iPad too.

The only snag is that when the shortcut is invoked, it leaves you in the shortcut app afterwards which is a bit confusing for my mom. There should be a way to have it drop you onto the home screen instead. I tried adding an "exit shortcut app" command but that did nothing.

[WiseOne]

So my mom was hit again today. Over $3500 in gift cards this time. Fortunately, this tripped a credit card fraud alert and the charges were denied, the store manager was called, and he called me. He turned out to be an absolute gem....talked to the scammer on the phone who was on with my mom the whole time giving her instructions. He claimed to be her son and that she owed him $18,000. He will especially watch out for my mom from now on, and gave me his cell phone number.

Verizon's landline (as seen on the website) showed that the call forwarding I set up was disregarded for a few calls - one of which was the scammer. It was forwarded to her cell phone which number I had deleted from call forwarding. Also, the number was blocked but that was ignored by Verizon. It turns out they have a max of 10 and will ignore any further blocked numbers - but won't tell you they're doing it. How quaint, as I told the rep. And indefensible in the current environment.

I found that phone calls had gotten past the unknown call silencing AND the call blocking on the iPhone too. I found a phone contact with the scammer's numbers on it, and also those same numbers were "pinned" in Messages. I got rid of both and also any contacts my mom didn't immediately recognize. And then I went for the atomic option #1: parental controls limiting calls to approved contacts only, both incoming and outgoing. But, I'm worried now that the scammers managed to somehow hack into my mom's phone. So tomorrow I'm going to take her phone in for a new phone # and will also do a hard reset (atomic option #2). With Verizon's leaky forwarding and lack of call blocking, that landline is going to be history soon...I'll have to port to cell phone then Google Voice number and forward it to me and my sister & brother so we can handle any "official" calls.

I just hope that whatever Trojan they installed on my mom's phone won't be able to defeat the parental control. That is pretty strict...you can't even call known contacts, unless they are explicitly re-added to the contact list.T

his is insane. What do normal non-tech savvy people do? I think the answer is that they get scammed out of tens of thousands or more. How horrible.

[dualstow]

This is a harrowing thread. Ringing a phone on silent. It is amazing what they can do.

Before my parents’ ID theft, they had taken their drivers license paperwork to an office three frickin’ times and were still running into bureaucratic problems. (Florida) Thief got himself a copy just like that. We think he reported it lost so the DMV sent him a copy. Parents were trying to update/renew.

i’m glad you have a relationship with the manager at CVS now.

Why can’t they do some kind of sting operation right at the store?

[WiseOne]

Why can’t they do some kind of sting operation right at the store?

Ha, my brother and I talked about that. He wants to call that guy, pretend to be my mom (his girlfriend or I would have to do that part I guess, and then see if he'll physically come to the store. Meet him there with police. Done.

The problem is, we think he's probably in Romania or the Ukraine or something. These are likely all spoofed numbers.

It is indeed a harrowing story, so far. We're definitely getting my mom a new phone # tomorrow (with T mobile....done with Verizon). I hope a hard reset and restoration off iCloud backup will be enough to take care of whatever those guys may have done to my mom's phone.

[Tortoise]

Really sorry you’re having to go through this ordeal, WiseOne.

Does your mom really need a limit of several thousand dollars or more on her credit card?

I assume you’ve already considered this, but just in case you haven’t, maybe it would make sense to reduce her card’s limit to slightly more than what she charges in a typical month?

Seems like a reduced credit limit would at least help contain the damage if a scammer manages to get to your mom again.

[dualstow]

The problem is, we think he's probably in Romania or the Ukraine or something. These are likely all spoofed numbers.

how does she get the gift cards to him? she has to read off the numbers? Edit: I see it in the first post. I had misread that as he called out to her, physically.

[Cortopassi]

Really sorry you’re having to go through this ordeal, WiseOne.

Does your mom really need a limit of several thousand dollars or more on her credit card?

I assume you’ve already considered this, but just in case you haven’t, maybe it would make sense to reduce her card’s limit to slightly more than what she charges in a typical month?

Seems like a reduced credit limit would at least help contain the damage if a scammer manages to get to your mom again.

It would also seem the credit card companies probably have the ability to selectively reject transactions. Can they, for example, reject all gift card transactions, but allow regular grocery items? I know it's not a real solution and I know you don't want to take away the phone.

My dad had a 10k SBA loan taken out in his name a few months ago. And this had zero contact with anyone, they simply took his identity and used it.

[Xan]

What if you took her credit card and got her a debit card, and managed the amount of money in the account it were linked to? Just enough for a grocery run but no more. Something like that.

[WiseOne]

Damn I typed a whole long response and then my M1 macbook did its magic cursor jumping trick and the whole thing got deleted.

Quick recap - I SO appreciate all these suggestions! Alzheimer's websites, the social worker at the med center etc are monumentally useless. Yes definitely to reducing credit limit, already planning on that once I switch out all the autopays to her checking account. And, going today to get her a new cell phone number. I still think those scammers somehow planted a Trojan into her phone, to bypass the call blocking. Hopefully a hard reset & restore from iCloud will be enough to get rid of it.

Also thinking will have to do something about email (like, remove her access to it), US mail (forward it to me), restrict online websites, take away her iMac and leave her with the iPad with only limited apps allowed, like Flipboard for reading news. Heavens, this is complicated. Fortunately, even though she has been staunchly resisting any suggestion of assisted living or an elder companion/aide, she was receptive to the idea that these things have to be restricted to keep her safe.