Fellow Monkeys, i'm nearly at my wits end, my Very Senior Father is addicted to Facebook and is highly vulnerable to scams! I have logged into his account and gone through his account and settings trying to block adds, and all the other sources of scams, but I haven't managed to stop them. Just the last 10 days, He has gotten bit by some slimeball trying to sell him a new roof, another trying to sell him super scetchy battery powered space heaters that charge via USB ( house fire at it's most scetchy) had a friend request from the "Future King of England" who told him he had won a super secret contest and would be getting a brand new Ford Raptor and 100K in prize money, all he had to do was pay $200 in legal fees and paperwork and send his address so they could deliver, Via DHL! LOL. The point is, he is highly susceptible to these scammers, and they absolutely will clean him out and take everything he has and every thing he has worked for his entire life, they don't care if it kills him, ruins him, and leaves him broke and destitute! We have had several discussions about his security, he promises not to click on stuff, but next day or two, BAM, nother scam! His bank caught one last week ( to the Tune of $2000) and blocked it and now he has to wait for a new bank card ( Number 6 this year alone) and he doesn't understand the risks he is opening himself up to, just clicking shit on Fakebook! I need all the help I can get here with this, I do not want to block his facebook and delete his account, but he is putting himself at risk, and unless I can get absolute control of this, I may have no choice in doin that to protect him! Like I posted above, I have been through his account and have done everything I can to block the adds and scams, but facebook is THE worlds scammer hideout, unless anyone has knowledge or ideas that I can try, we may be left with no other choices! Dads nearly a shut in, he isn't really able to get around on his own, is a very high fall risk, and is lonely, so the web and social media is really his only access to the outside world, and now, that may be coming to an end! HELP!!!!
On your dads account say you are prolife and the dirtbag abortionists should go to prison...or worse. They'll cancel his ass so fast....
Max out his privacy settings. FB has detailed instructions on how to do it. It can be set up so that no one can send friends request or even find your page. My guess is his page is wide open with no privacy settings in place. And supervise the groups he joins the scammers pick up most of their victims from the members list of public groups with little to no moderation. Keep his friends list small friends of friends are prime scammer hunting grounds also. I have pretty tight privacy settings but did back off a little on them so all the women could send me PMs when I was stalking the singles groups. Speaking of which LOTs of scammers in those groups in particular. Tight Privacy and A short friends list. I have a whopping 13 FB Friends and maybe 40 people I talk with on messenger but won't add as friends to my page. FB is no different than any other online forum and you are only as vulnerable as you make yourself.
Boy, it's tough. My dad and your came from a generation that was trusting to begin with. He was also generous and kind hearted and susceptible to sob stories. Fortunately I was my dad's caregiver for the last years of his life and was able to cut a lot of this type of stuff off at the pass. A few times I was able to intervene after the fact and get his money back. Is he on his own, living in a retirement or care facility or living with you? Having him with me I was able to get his attention on other things under the pretense of helping me with projects and fixing things. "Dad, can you remember how much gravel and sand I need to add to the concrete?, stuff like that to keep his brain active. Also, being there I was able to have peace of mind about things like falls, wandering off, and making sure he got to his appointments, meds were in order, etc.. Also made sure he got to travel to see his other kids and relatives. Not always easy and sometimes sucked but very rewarding. In addition to the things that @Kamp Krap you might want to consider adding "Retired Fraud Investigator for the FBI and currently consulting" to his profile. Definitely keep on top of his social media friends and Messenger contacts.
Increase the privacy settings and security, but that might not be enough. You might have to go to court to limit his access to funds, especially credit and debit cards, I know that can be hard, kinda like taking away their car keys, but you might have to do it. Also, place a freeze on his accounts so that he or someone else can't apply for new cards, open accounts, sell assets, or mortgage his house.
Can you add your device to his account? That way you would also get notifications and be able to keep a casual eye on his messages.
While I probably over post on the Monkey, I do not use any of the social posts. 25 years or so back the local VFW would build ramps, rework houses. etc for the vets that had mobility problems. The local hardware-lumberyard would furnish the materials for free. Been in business since before 1900 and family had been WW1, WW2, Korea, and Vietnam that I know of. 100 % non profit except the materials may have been written off on taxes. Ramps, widen doors, move a wall to make bigger bath room or bed room, etc. Somehow or other I got on a sucker list for vets charities. Donated money to a couple, got return address stamps , etc. Got checking into one and found about 90 % of the money raised went to operation and fund raising. The local people doing things worked for free and they got money for materials. But the president and board, mostly related, made sure that family or friends worked for the fund raising and the charity. The more money that came, the higher the "expenses" . On paper they could account for every dime spent and they were all legal expenses. Quit donating to them, still get about 20 things a year from about 20 wounded vets, etc fund raisers and they try their best to make me feel guilty for not donating to them. Might be tarring some with wrong brush, but I quit them all. Lots of charities with ,BLM for example, million dollar offices, 250 thousand dollar board members, and all the money gone. More money, more expenses and more hogs at the trough. Religious groups, elderly housing, group housing, educational, Harvard comes to mind, all try to take your money, some like the government have a semi legal "right" to take it. Good post and the older you get, the more clever and skilled those that seem to thrive on preying on others get, Some like the congress critters and ex presidents have it down to a fine art as do many of the "retired" high ranking military officers. My wife has Altshiemers and I now have the power of the court to act on her behalf. While that is good, now I am fighting to keep her out of a $10,000 a month nursing home. Medicare will not pay for Altshieners as the care is not "medical" but "personal", aid eating, bathing, moving around house, etc. While I would like and could use some personal care assistance, going thru a "Home Health Agency" approved by the state and supplying help, I would pay about $32 an hour with the person doing the work getting about $17. At some point I am going to lose and would almost rater lose the money to an honest conman than to the crooked medical economic system. Most of the elderly I know, am 85, were working people and between taxes, insurance, medical, nursing home expenses, have died broke on paper and left kids little if anything. For Medicaid long term care you first have to spend down your assets, then they can go back for 5 years and try to take back any money you have given people, property sold at less than fair value, etc. State is the biggest scammer you will ever have to face. Can force people into nursing homes, not sending them there is classified as "elder Abuse" and force you to spend your life long savings to care for them. It is a big business and the system uses both the carrot and the stick. It is for their best interest and if you don't do it I will throw you in jail. Most medical providers are terrified of the state and elder abuse cases and will do whatever they are told to do. Don't mean to hijack thread, but biggest scam I face is a total legal creation of the state and medical industry. Haven't been able to do anything about it. Biggest danger for children etc is 5 year claw back provision and in some states you are still liable for parents expenses. If you think there are sharks in the social media, the biggest sharks are totally legal and make you sign up to be eaten, or take you to court and have the state do it for "your own good". If you are 55 or older, you should be aware of the dangers and start making plans now. Not nice to spend 25 years making prep plans and have some guy in a suit say, glad you put that away, I can now take it and buy my new ski lodge in Colorado.
I don't know anything about fakebook,, I get on very few web sites. I'm not sure if this is a consideration or not ,, but taking control of his bank account would be the best way ,, but I know he probably wouldn't like that .
No one has said this so I will state the obvious...take it away from him. You can't? So, @DKR is right, get him banned. I say this because it is obvious you can't simply take this away from him, he would probably throw a fit, but he needs protecting so... Do it on the quiet, let him think it is something he said so he is angry with FB and not you. Or, the other option and the approach I would take is...@SB21 is correct, take control of his bank account plus cancel or control any debit/credit cards and destroy his check book asap. Should you not do these things then you/he is going to get hurt and hurt bad for he will get himself into a predicament you cannot correct and soon. There are way too many slimebags out there that do nothing but prey on the elderly and the only way you can protect him is to control his finances. Let's face it, if you control his finances then he can't do much to hurt himself. Yeah, I know, it's hard...I assume you have already talked to him?
So far, I have managed to log into his account and went through everything I could find and set his security as strict as I can make it, so we will see how that goes! I have power of attorney on most stuff already, so we should be Ok on that front! He lives with us here, and has anything/everything he needs. We did a full ADA build on his room and bathroom, and he has a walker to help him get around. He usually follows me out to the shop to hang out when I am working on stuff, the Shop has a nice little apartment sort of setup, full bath, full kitchen, and sitting/dining area plus wi-fi and a big screen t.v. with full access, so he has plenty of entertainment options, Plus, the doggies always follow us out there, so there is that! As to quality of life, things are about as good as it's likely to get, MY wife spoils the hell out of him with really good food and a good fussing over, the only issue is the remoteness, and this time of year with all the snow on the ground, a little depressing, addin the nearly hour sno-cat ride to town, or the hospital, and that can get fun, fortunately, I have been keeping the Super Imp Sno-Cat right up at the front door of the main house, so in an emergency, it's right there ready to go, it's plugged in to the house so everything is already warm and ready! Hoping this fakebook b.s is taken care of, will see in a few days, but now that I can check his account at will, I should be able to head off any potential issues there. E-mails and other stuff I have access and control of already, and that's not been an issue ever since, just the Fakebook, which is kind of a head scratcher, but I think we might have a handle on it now! Thanks for all the suggestions, I was really starting to bang my head against the walls, threatening to close and delete his account only made him mad as a sun burnt rattler, so that wasn't going to end well. and he is my Dad, a hero to many, MY hero, and I didn't want to have to do stuff like that!
Having been on the web in the 90's using Windows 3.11 I have avoided Fakebook, InstaCram & Shitter like the plague. I have made many mistakes, avoiding Fakebook, InstaCram & Shitter is not one of them
Dude, I've been fighting it with my parents for years around scams. They got taken for 1500 bucks about 8 years ago. I keep telling them, Don't click on email links. Don't click on links in texts go directly to their bank by typing in www.mybanknamehere.com every time (granted DNS poisoning is a thing but less likely route of attack vs. an email or text link. No one from any branch of gov't is going to call. They are going to send you a letter. And if it's official, if you ignore it long enough, they'll show up at your door. At your age, don't worry about your credit report being dinged by not paying a 'bill' because it was a scam anyway. and don't get me started with insurance agents selling unnecessary coverage like fuel oil tank spill coverage when they have natural gas. That effer got a piece of my mind when i got up there a couple of years ago. Ya throw out the words like fraud, financial elder abuse and state insurance commission .. you leave with a refund check for a couple of years worth of overages. Anyway, old folks and technology, bad mix. The are not bright enough to understand that the whole M'fing thing is a scam.
I do pretty good with the hot Asian chick scams. They hit me on every messaging platform I have a few times a week. I am married, I'm generally working on finances I have preplanned the use of, and I am a fat old white guy. Any sexy young woman fishing around online would HAVE to be a scam. The demographics would rapidly get even narrower from there if I was single.
Yeah, we may be getting older but don't trust people like our parents. I hope I never become that naïve. I'd rather be a cranky old curmudgeon
I don't use Facebook and try not to click on anything. Tell your dad Facebook is fake and gay. I've been through similar problems, it's tough. My father grew angry because he forgot how to use his computer, and he used to sell computers. Getting him to stop driving was bad. Zimmy had the idea to add your device, that sounds good.
