Senior Scam Pattern
 

One of the high-profiled senior multi-million-dollar scam has a common pattern.   The senior victims lost their entire life savings and the house they have been living in for many years.  Scammer groups claimed to be "government officials" and tried to help the senior to carry out the "private investigation" with lots of required payments as a collateral.  By providing fabricated government documents, wearing fake government uniform, or mocking the phone/Line identity, those scammers won the full trust of the seniors and threatened them to be 100% confidential otherwise would have severe impact to their lives.  

 

Those targeted seniors have something in common:

1. Living alone: They tended to live alone without any partners or family members.  The recent cases happened to senior women with their children all living overseas,

2. Disconnected with society or close family members: They tended to be quite financially and emotionally independent.  When fraud event happened, they completely trapped into the plot and believed they can cooperate with the "government official" to resolve the case by themselves.  They didn't know those fabricated government documents, mocked caller ID, and fake uniform were all made up by the professional scammers to deceive them completely.

3. Deteriorating cognitive ability: They fell into the trap once they believed those are "government officials" and under the threat enforced by scammers. They threat those seniors if they leak out any info, they would be sent to the jail immediately and/or immediately impact other family members.  With deteriorating cognitive ability and failing to share info with remote family members, seniors tended to follow exactly what scammers command.

 

 

Another Reported Senior Scam Case in Taiwan

An 81-year-old woman, Mrs Chou, living in Taipei has lost 7 Million (NTD) savings and 40 Million (NTD) on the house she has been living in as a collateral when a scam group pretend as "government investigators".  They forced her to sell all her stocks and saving worth of 7 Million (NTD) and used the crypto currency to laundry her money.  After she had drained the entire life saving, the scammers targeted on the nice house she has been living in.  They fabricated a court document with a government seal and a judge's signature and asked her to put 40 Million (NTD) loan against the house she lived in.  Mrs. Chou lived alone while her children have been living overseas.  

 

Note: When the incident happened in August/September 2022, the exchange rate is around 1 USD to 30.5 NTD