Don’t fall for scams targeting older adults, police warn

First published Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2024 in the Dundalk Eagle.

Scammers want your money. Now. Don’t fall for it.

That was Debby Chenoweth’s message at a Precinct 12 Community-Police Alliance meeting at the North Point Library on Monday.

In her roughly 40-minute presentation, the police service officer outlined common scams targeting mostly older adults, including pizza deliveries and the classic computer virus scam.

Scammers will order a pizza or a cab to an elderly person’s house, she said, in order to talk with them. 

She recounted one case where a scammer ordered a cab to an elderly woman’s house. The elderly woman’s son turned to the cab driver and asked him why he was there.

“‘Oh, the lady that lives in house,’” the cab driver said, according to Chenoweth. “He said, ‘I have her nephew on the phone and he’s concerned about her. He wants to talk to her.’”

That’s how bad it’s gotten, Chenoweth said.

“Now this is the lengths these people are starting to go to. It’s not just like they’re out of the country or away from us so we can’t see them, but they are going after these people any way they can,” she said. “And that’s very scary.”

Chenoweth said she got one of the calls herself — a scammer called her and told her she had a virus on her computer. Her son was standing next to her and told her to just hang up. 

Another scam was much more sophisticated — a scammer claiming to be from her bank told her that somebody was trying to open an account in her name — a month after somebody actually tried to open an account in her name in Texas. 

The scammer immediately added another scammer to the call, who claimed to be from Experian, the credit monitoring service.

“I said, ‘Really? The bank’s got you on speed dial?” Chenoweth said.

“‘No, we work together,’” she said the scammer told her.

He proceeded to read out her phone number, date of birth, social security number and every credit card she had on file to try to convince her.

“And I said, ‘So does that make you a big man or what? Because I’ll shut them all down, right now’” she said.

It’s not just strangers scamming the elderly, though. Family members do it too, she emphasized.

You can report scams to the police and FBI. Debby Chenoweth can be reached at 410-887-4837 for questions and advice.