I had a car for sale two years ago on craig's list. I had a scammer of some sort contact me via email. At first they seemed to be making legitimate inquiries about the car. The person said they were representing someone in England, who wanted the car, and they were buying it for them here in the U.S. to be shipped back to England. Then they said they wanted to buy it with a cashier's check but the amount would be over the purchase price and I would need to send the difference before shipping etc, etc. Since this was April of 2005, the scam was new at the time but I still knew it was a scam of some sort. I researched it online on the FBI's website. Sure enough, there were big warnings about the new scam. I reported this person but never heard anything from the FBI. However, they didn't use an international address. They actually used the address of a bed and breakfast in michigan. But the phone number they gave me always went straight to voice mail. And when I called the B&B, they had no idea who that person was. Since the money was to be wired to them instead of sending it to the B&B, I think they just picked an address at random that seemed legitimate. They weren't planning on getting any mail or money at that address. But having a U.S. address made them seem more legitimate, I suppose. One of the things that made me curious at the very beginning was it made no sense for anyone in England to want to buy a used car in the U.S., especially a gas guzzling Ford Explorer. So big for a country with such narrow streets and sky high gas prices. How much is the equivalent of a gallon of gas there? Isn't it around $6? And plus, the steering wheel would be on the wrong side of the car! Anyway, I never did tell the guy that I'd busted him. I wanted to see if the FBI would catch him. But they didn't do anything. No one ever contacted me. I did find an article at the time in the Chicago Sun Times on this then new scam. So I emailed the reporter to give him the details on how they'd tried to scam me. He emailed me back and I forwarded him the emails. I thought at least a reporter could make use of the info to get the news out.

Those who live to a ripe old age will find certain tasks or habits of life can't be continued. They reach an age where they can no longer drive, or live alone, or go shopping, or live in a rural setting or whatever. In much the same way, many elderly reach an age when their diminished thinking abilities make looking after their own financial affairs not possible. We have such an oldster in our family. She's mentally fine in most respects and lives comfortably on her own but can get flummoxed by new situations. Management of her financial means has been taken away from her and other than a small bank account for cash expenditures, all other money matters of her existence are handled by her kids (who themselves are approaching senior citizenship). Friends and family need to protect those with some degree of diminished functionality from causing themselves harm. This person I mentioned can be approached by any form of cons and other than the change drawer in her bedroom, there's little damage that can be done. Everyone should be so protected from various crooks who have been around since forever and will always be looking to take advantage of others.

I have a landline that I literally never answer. I have the ringer turned off on it. But it's hooked up to an answering machine, so on the rare chance it's a legitimate caller they can leave a message. If I see the answering machine light blinking then I'll listen to the message. One day I had a message from an IRATE elderly gentleman. He was furious and demanding to know why I'd been calling him several times a day and not leaving a message. Obviously some delightful company was spoofing my number and using it as a "local" number to try to get people to answer. That gentleman called me back a few more times and left scary/angry messages on my phone. Unfortunately his caller id was blocked, so I had no way of knowing who he was. However he was getting so irate in his messages to me I almost called the cops. If you google my home phone number it comes up with my name and address, even though allegedly my number is private. (Thank you America for stripping away any hopes of privacy anymore.) I was starting to get concerned this guy was just going to show up at my door! So I turned the ringer on and hoped he'd call again. Fortunately/unfortunately that evening he did, so I answered and he UNLOADED on me. It took every ounce in me to calmly explain my number was being spoofed and I swear no one from this house is calling you. I told him if he didn't believe me, I'd really like to call the police together and file a report. He finally calmed down and almost ended up apologizing to me. Over the next few days I got a few more messages from people wondering why I was calling them and not leaving a message. Charming. So I changed my outgoing message, to alert callers to the fact my number was being spoofed and I swear it's not me calling you. TL;DR. I DESPISE telemarketers.

" Well of course had I not opened it, I wouldn't've known what it was or who it was from. " Wrong approach, this topic seems to have you puzzled. You don't need to know who it's from, you may want to know who it's NOT from but that doesn't matter so much either. An email I got just the other day said this was the sender: "SSA_Account_Review_Team" And the title of the email was: " Tips for New SSA Account Holders to Avoid Suspension " The return email address of the sender was: " majw1301@gmail.com" Clearly not from the SSA. Clearly bogus. Who cares who it came from? There was a PDF attached, who cares? Delete button pushed. I've been getting messages like this for years and years, Most but not all get trapped by the email providers screens. I'm sure most others have received similar messages too. It's not confusing, there's nothing more to know. Not legit=delete. If I mistakenly delete something important, I'll hear again. Hasn't happened yet.