Senior citizen scams

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – It’s National Senior Citizen’s Day

and the Better Business Bureau wants to raise awareness about scams targeting senior citizens. President of the Central Ohio Better Business Bureau Kip Morse said the most common scam is the Grandparent Scam. He said that someone will call pretending to be a grandchild in trouble and ask for money.

“A scammer calls up and says, ‘hey do you know who this is?’ and the person says ‘Is it Betty?’ and said ‘yes it is.’ and then it starts down a path of a pretty prevalent scam,” said Morse.

Morse said that scammers often play on emotion and that the best thing to do is to take a step back before acting. He says to call any children or grandchildren directly to make sure they are okay. He also said that anyone asking for money to be wired or sent is a red flag.

“So then if you hear ‘I need you to wire money’, red flag,” said Morse. “If you hear wire money, money gram, any kind of debit card to go purchase at Wal-Mart or something like that, that should be a big red flag.”

Morse said if someone thinks they have been called by a scammer, even if they did not send any money, they need to report it to the Better Business Bureau. He said scam calls can be reported over the phone or on their website and that they also have information about current scams.