My elderly mother has been scammed twice (that I know of). She fell for one of those "Your computer has been hacked" popup windows a few years ago. Which led to her buying a "protection" service that installed malware on her machine. Every couple of months she'd have an "issue" and have to shell out more money to fix it. She's been using computers since the 80's (Apple ][e) but still is utterly clueless on how to operate a computer. I had her take her computer to a computer shop to have the OS re-installed but he somehow kinda botched it. Fortunately I was able to later re-install Windows myself and she hasn't had an issue since. I've strongly warned her about scammers and now when she doesn't respond to an obvious scammer email she's pleased with herself. Old people really do become children again.
Folks, if you still have grandparents and you love them please give them a call. Let them hear your voice and know where you are. Scammers are targeting the elderly because they are lonely. With social media all they need are a few public posts to feed them plausible details. And absence of seeing or talking to you means anyone can call and say they are you. I’ve read transcripts and listened to the call recordings as evidence. It’s quite clear most elderly have no idea what their adult grandchildren sound like. But one day they are going to get a call from a Cabo jail and naturally want to help.
> She's been using computers since the 80's (Apple ][e) but still is utterly clueless on how to operate a computer.
On it's surface, this is what it looks like, but in reality what's happening is that your mother learned what she needed to learn to do her job and the things she's interested in doing. Now, unfortunately, that is no longer enough. Now you need to have a decent understanding of how things work so you can know when to call bullshit.
What separates all of us from the general public is we're not content to just learn what's required to do our jobs - we must learn how the thing works.
I was at dinner many years ago with some friends, and one of them had invited an opinion piece writer from the New York Times and she and I got into - what she felt - was a slightly heated back and forth, but I was actually just stating the reality of the new paradigm in which we live, which is this:
The days of learning everything you'll need to learn to operate in the world in high school and college are over. They've been over. You're going to have to continually learn new skills, all the time, if you expect to maintain your job and position in the modern world. If you're not willing to do that, you will no longer be promoted and if you continue to maintain that perspective, you'll eventually be fired for someone that will dedicate hours after work to keeping abreast of all the changes.
She said that was, "inhumane" and "unrealistic". I told her it didn't matter what she thought it was, because this is the reality of Corporate America, and it's even more true in technology companies, and the absolute gospel in Big Tech. She got a little huffy, but frankly I don't give a fuck when people get huffy over hearing how the world actually works, because 1) I'm not causing it and 2) no one can stop it, or even slow it down. The best you can do is adapt or choose to lay down and die. And I'm not gonna fuckin' lay down and die.
Apparently, neither is your Mom, since she's learning how to discern bullshit scammer emails from legitimate communications, so I say, good on her, and I hope she keeps on keeping on!
