When at the Verizon store in Brea today, a woman came in frantic. She had received a call from Verizon claiming fraud. She gave them all of her info—and I mean all: license, Gmail account, banking info, address, etc. Then her phone became disabled. I mentioned to the Verizon employee helping me that I received a similar call earlier this week. I’m always suspicious, so I hung up. A reminder to NEVER answer “yes” to any question. Always hang up and call the number on your statement or the reverse side of your bank card, even if the number that called you states that it is your bank, etc. Scammers spoof numbers all the time.
I don’t know what happened to this woman, but I know she had to cancel all her cards and change all her passwords. She might have lost money. It is possible she has mild cognitive impairment. One of the reasons I am encouraging people to add a co-trustee is it adds protection. For some of my clients, I even get a taxpayer ID for the Trust so that most of their money is under a number that is not their social security number. I am passionate about protecting my clients from scams. Nothing is foolproof, but awareness helps.
If you want to update your documents to protect yourself from scams, let me know.
