When my grandfather passed away, my family and I all received letters from a man in Florida claiming he was “deeply sorry” to hear about our loss. He claimed to be my grandfathers crypto currency advisor and wanted to help us recover thousands of dollars in crypto that allegedly belonged to my grandfather. He told us that he had access to the accounts and needed us to contact him to transfer funds.
To the untrained eye, the letter seemed pretty convincing, It had his full name, the correct date of death and even mentioned some personal details that somewhat made it sound legitimate. We had multiple older family members reach out to us to confirm that it was a scam. We reassured them that there was no crypto currency and that its just a clever trick aimed to target grieving family members into inheriting a fortune. They were able to get personal details through public death records and funeral announcements which provided them with some personal details about him that made it sound as if the advisor knew him personally.
The purpose of this scam was pretty simple. The scammer wanted to trick us into sharing personal information or paying some sort of fee for fake cryptocurrency funds that never existed. We avoided it because of common sense, we knew that it was a hoax and that my late grandfather was not a secret crypto currency adopter.
Looking back the easiest ways to spot scams like this are to verify the sender and to avoid sharing personal or financial information with untrusted sources, and to contact other family members and alert them of the situation before sending money. If something sounds too good to be true. It probably is.
It is an unfortunate world that we live in where people will prey on those who are grieving in order to make a buck. Sending out warnings and helping people become aware of these ploys and scams is really important, especially for the elderly who may not know what to look for.
I completely agree, the elderly are the most vulnerable in these situations and its important that we keep them in the loop to protect them and their hard earned savings. Thanks for commenting mom
Its sad that we live in a world today with the internet, that so many people would want to take advantage of people to make money.
It’s disgusting how easy it is for scammers to trick people in todays day and age.
Truly a terrible crime. Too many people willing to commit fraud and steal in todays society.
I think its absolutely ridiculous as well! The internet makes it so easy for those trying to hurt others to get away with it.
It’s crazy to think that death records and personal information is so readily available to people who want to cause harm and hardship to grieving families. I’m so sorry this happened to you guys and I’m glad you didn’t fall for it!
We now have conversations with elderly members of our families to keep them in the loop about certain scams and they always confirm with us whenever they receive anything involving money. I fear for what future scams may look like with the uprising of AI, deepfakes and voice mimicking.