Jii-san Baa-san Wakagaeru (Grandpa and Grandma Turn Young Again) is one of my favorite current anime shows, and there's this one scene where Ine Saitou receives a phone call from a "son". There's no subtitles but I can give you the gist of what's going on based on my memory.
Ine realizes almost instantly that it's not one of her real sons that contacted her but a scammer. She deftly handles the situation by playing along for a bit, and at one point tells them "I can't be your real mother, but if you're ever in a hard spot feel free to call me." All while she's recording them, of course. As you can probably guess at the end of the clip, the perp was captured.
This perfectly reflects what can happen to elderly people whenever they answer the phone, and the Aomori Perfecture Police is using this anime scene to illustrate how not to fall for real life phone scams. Whether we live in Japan or in America, we all need to take the proper precautions:
- Check in with elderly family members once a week, or more frequently if needed.
- If someone poses as the police or your bank, don't give out any personal information. Call them directly immediately afterward to confirm they contacted you.
- Never, ever give out your personal information like your financial or SSN deets.
I caught a news story last night about scammers posing as recruiters hiring at large corporations and scamming new graduates out of money. I didn't quite understand exactly what the new grads thought they were paying for. I don't answer my phone or emails from anyone that I don't have in my contact list.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's a struggle to get certain family members to not be so trusting of people that call them, email them, and even show up on their front porch to sell "Verizon" while ignoring the No Solicitors signs posted on the property.
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