re: Which of these scams did your parents/grandparents fall for?

My mom, at about 75, called University of Phoenix once about finishing her degree (she had never started one). They directed her to a website where she took an "entrance" exam and provided some minor personal information and her SS#. Never thought about it again. About 3 months they start calling her telling her she owes them $3000. Scares her to death. They continue calling. in 9 months she owed them right at $12000. A little under $10K of that was student loans they had gotten on her behalf. She called me finally and told me she was scared...I did not know anything about it at the time. Said they were threatening to come to her apartment and take all her stuff, her car, and even calling her neighbors telling them that she wouldn't pay her bills. I was more than pissed. I flew home the next week and started calling them. Finally had to get our state representative at the time involved. They finally quit calling when they found out her only income was SS and it can't be garnisheed and she owned nothing but a car worth about $3k.


The truly bad part is they actually received right at $10K from the taxpayers. They did the application for her and ramrodded it through the system without her knowledge. Even if she did have knowledge she had already been diagnosed with dementia. She was not competent to make any financial decisions...and of course they prey on older people because they are easy to intimidate.