Common Scams Elderly People Are Being Hit With...

There are some common scams elderly are facing these days. Local companies are using calling centers to scam senior citizens in many different ways. Times may be tough, but seriously. Do companies get away with using calling centers to scam seniors? How crooked can business owners get and still sleep at night? There must be more people void of a conscience than I thought.

My wife and I moved 3000 miles recently to be with her dad, as her mom had passed away and her dad wasn't coping so well on his own. So we are temporarily living with him until we get a place of our own here in the area. One of the first things I noticed that he wasn't able to make his monthly payments, so I was wondering what payments he had. So we found out he had mortgage payments. I said how come, because I knew his house was paid for.

Someone had talked him into mortgaging 80% of his house, so he could draw interest from that. Within a few months he stopped receiving his interest payments. Now he is making mortgage payments on a home that is already paid for and still not receiving any interest money.

He was receiving phone calls about the duct work in the house. The first guy came and checked it all out and took pictures of the inside of the duct work. There was another company that had called and also wanted to come and check the duct work for him. He said "Okay", so before they came we told him that the other guy was already here and checked it all and gave a quote, but he said the guy told him that it wouldn't cost him anything for them to come. Do my dad let him come and check it. When he was here, we showed him the quote that he was given from the other guy and they simply made a phone call and then left.

When these calling centers call, they make it sound like it is all going to be free so the senior figures it's all okay and why not let them come. These are scammers just trying to get money from seniors for services that are entirely unnecessary. The home he lives in is only a few years old and is in no need of anything.

He had a company calling for months and bugging about replacing his water heater. They had called at least 2 or 3 times per week. We didn't realize this at first because he was answering the phone and we didn't hear about it until the time he said okay come. They told him this would not cost him anything for them to come and replace the water heater. When the guy was here he told my dad that this and this needed to be done in order for them to change the water heater. So, in the end it was suppose to cost him money, which they told him it wouldn't cost a cent. Scam????? I happened to be here when the service guy came for time he had said. After he explained what renovations needed to be done to meet the local bi laws in order to replace the heater on a just about brand new house, then I told the service guy that thank you for stopping by and we had not ordered anything and there was no need for this to be replaced, because the water heater is working perfectly. I asked the service man why he was here and he had no idea accept for the fact that the company had made this appointment. Then after he left, my dad still kept receiving calls for this service for a few more weeks, until he told them that he did not need a new water heater.

There are so many seniors in the world that are getting scammed by people, who are just trying to get money for totally unnecessary things that don't need to be done.