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Fighting Scams Targeting the Elderly With Old-School Tech
itwbennett writes Sharp is launching a pair of landline phones designed to counter a growing form of fraud in Japan that preys upon the elderly. The 'ore ore' ('it's me, it's me') fraudsters pretend to be grandchildren in an emergency and convince their victims to send money, generally via ATM. Sharp's new phones are designed to alert seniors to the dangers of unknown callers. When potential victims receive that are not registered in the internal memory of Sharp's new phones, their LED bars glow red and the phones go into anti-scam mode. An automated message then tells the caller that the call is being recorded and asks for the caller to state his or her name before the call is answered.
Oh, and of course I shall spend mod points exclusively on promoting anti new layout posts.
And here I was, thinking this was going to be a boring day.
I like this new feature "hidden post button"
no, I don't have a sig
Slashdot today - where economists tell scientists, engineers and others that don't do fortune telling for a living to get a grip on reality. Pretty funny isn't it?
Anyway, back on topic. Why not just teach seniors to tell anyone claiming to be their grandchild to call their parents if they need money? It's not as if haven't spent a good portion of their lives paying to support parasites already, right?
Because hearing gets bad as you age and you're not totally sure it's your grandkid or not. Because people suffer dementia when they get older. Because it's easy to confuse people when they get older. Because if you're a scammer and you're good at what you do, it's easy to guilt people or threaten people into giving you money.
There's a reason these scams are done worldwide. They work. I saw my own very intelligent grandma fall victim to a phone scammer once. She never would have fallen for it in her younger days, but at 85, those fast talking bastards nearly cleaned her bank account out. My mom was able to get all her money back after about 14 months. And you know what, my grandma died in 2011 and those fuckers are still calling. They told my mom last week that they had just talked to my grandma and she authorized payment so my mother better stop meddling, or else. My mom told them to feel free to go to the police and report her.
It happens. It doesn't matter how old you are. Pressure tactics, when done right, are scary as hell, particularly to the elderly. I live in a small town and the banks here already have similar alerts available. If you try to make a payment that is out of the ordinary, which you set up what would be considered normal transactions, they won't allow payment until they speak with you or your representative. Just because you've been used to scams your whole life, doesn't mean you still won't fall victim to one.
Wow, that was a fun game Slashdot, but I finally found the hidden "Post" button.
Green text on a very slightly darker green background? Genius!
Get your act together. You're looking even more amateurish than usual.
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Yes because basic human compassion for your own family is such a negative trait, maybe we should beat it right out of people?
Good luck. Yah, ALL we have to do is convince a significant number of people to ignore basic human empathy if that empathy is not within our narrow world view. People are free to live how they want as long as they do so in the way you have proscribed for them, problem solved eh?
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
Slashdot. Seriously? The Post button is all but completely hidden and elements are randomly overlaying other elements. Sigs are on top of the reply links. "You may like to read links" overlay the "voting on submissions" text. Buttons appear and disappear as you hover over them. Everything just has a smashed-together feel.
Is it really so very, very hard to just leave things alone?
this signature has been removed due to a DMCA takedown notice
You seem to be labouring under the delusion that this has anything to do with legal duty. Think of it as the risk people take for not being a selfish and uncaring douchebag.