Telemarketers prey on the elderly because the seniors are from a generation that believed you could count on what someone told you officially on the telephone or sent to you in First Class Mail.
Well all the crooks use First Class Mail and pose as officials on the telephone.
In this scam the caller says he is an official with some sweepstakes company and it is his job to give the winners their prizes. He says the Senior has won a brand new Cadillac and he needs their address so he can send the car. He says they do not have to pay him anything they are the winners and they get the car Free. He says all they have to do is furnish proof that they have paid their State Prize Tax, and then the car will be delivered to them from a local Cadillac Dealer.
He gives them a number to check on the State tax. But the number is not to a state office but to the crook sitting beside him. That conman tells you that you the State tax on the new Cadillac is $400. You can pay by phone check on your bank account, or by credit card, or ATM with a pin number and bank number. Day after day Seniors pay the phony tax and of course they never get the car. When they call the State tax office no one knows what they are talking about.
Here is one of Judd’s Rules: If you win a prize then you get the prize you do not have to pay them a fee. Remember, too, you can’t win a contest or sweepstakes unless you entered it. When telemarketers call and say you won a prize, thank them and tell them to send the prize, but you will not send them any money or give them financial information, like your bank account number or your Social Security number.