美国电话诈骗花样百出 却令人备感熟悉

Barely a week passes in this house without one of us picking up the phone to an automated call offering my parents a free medical alert system. Of course, it is not free, but rather a well-known fraud trying to get their credit card information either for a donation, shipping or some additional emergency service.

我家几乎每周总会有人接到自动语音电话，向我父母提供免费医疗警报系统。当然，它不是免费的，而是众所周知的诈骗电话，以捐款、运送或者提供附加应急服务为名，窃取信用卡信息。

Luckily, because I live with my parents, who are in their 80s, I am not only their medical alert system (shout if you fall) but also their fraud alert system (hang up if they call). Last month, there was the guy who phoned saying my mother had made an appointment with a lawn service (she had not), asking for a prepayment. Then there was the large package that arrived a few days ago — some cleaning supplies my father bought that, unbeknown to him, did not cost $12 but rather $100, once the extra fees were added to what appeared to be a box of Clorox. “The moment I gave my credit card, they automatically added more products I didn’t want,” he told me in his defense.

我的父母都80多岁了。幸运的是，我和他们住在一起，我不仅是他们的医疗警报系统（如果他们摔倒了，大喊一声我就听到了），而且是他们的诈骗警报系统（如果有人打诈骗电话，我会让他们挂掉）。上个月，有个家伙打电话说我妈预约了修草坪服务（她其实没有预约），要求提前付款。几天前，我们收到了一个大包裹，里面是我爸在不知情的情况下购买的一些清洁用品，不过，费用不是12美元，而是100美元，那箱东西不过是高乐氏漂白水，却增加了额外费用。“我一提供自己的信用卡，他们就自动添加了一些我不想要的产品， ”我爸为自己辩护说。

My friend Karen’s biggest problem with her mother, who lives in an assisted living facility, is not her mind (she has early dementia) but rather her mail (60 solicitations a day).

我的朋友凯伦(Karen)的妈妈住在养老院里。凯伦最担心的不是妈妈的头脑（她有早期老年痴呆症），而是她的信件（每天60封）。

“Many days she will tell me she is too busy doing her ‘work’ to go out to lunch with me,” said Karen, who discovered last year just how many thousands of dollars in checks her mother was writing to organizations claiming to protect Social Security, wildlife, children in need and the military (including one asking for funds to buy sewing kits for soldiers in Afghanistan). “She thinks she is paying her bills,” said Karen, adding that many of the letters are stamped “act now” or “overdue,” even though she obviously owes nothing to these charities, many of which are bogus.

“她经常跟我说，她忙着处理事务，不能跟我出去吃午饭，”凯伦说。去年，她发现妈妈签的支票中有上万美元是捐给一些自称保护社会安全或野生动物、救助贫困儿童或军队的机构（其中有个机构居然要求捐款给阿富汗的士兵买针线包）。“她以为自己在付账单，”凯伦说。她补充说，很多信上印有“现在行动”或“早该发生”的字样，尽管她显然并不欠欠那些慈善机构什么东西，而且其中很多是冒牌机构。

Karen’s mother is now angry that her daughter has taken away her checkbook, since neither Karen nor the staff members have the time to sort through bags of mail each day. “Once you give money to one of these scams, the others seem to find you and the mail just increases,” said Karen, who now fears her mother is sending cash donations. But it was another incident — in which her mother nearly agreed to meet a man in a parking lot who claimed her grandson was in trouble and in need of $5,000 — that truly frightened my friend. (Fortunately, it was thwarted by her mother’s banker calling Karen with a head’s up that she had just requested a cashier’s check for an emergency.)

现在，凯伦的妈妈为女儿拿走支票簿而生气。因为凯伦和养老院的工作人员都没时间每天整理那一大堆的信件。“一旦某个诈骗团伙骗走了你的钱，其他团伙似乎就找到了你，信件就会不断增加，”凯伦说。现在她担心妈妈直接送现金捐款。不过这是另一桩事件：她妈妈差点同意和一个男人在停车场会面，后者声称她的外孙遇到了麻烦，需要5000美元。这真的吓坏了凯伦（幸运的是，这次诈骗被银行出纳员挫败了。这位出纳员给凯伦打电话，说她妈妈声称自己遇到了紧急情况，要求获得银行本票）。

My friend Fran’s mother, however, was not so lucky, and within a month lost $40,000 to a network of phone thieves, who told her she had won a contest with a large cash prize that would be deposited into her bank account once she gave them access. After giving them her bank and credit card account numbers, they then linked them to a PayPal account from which they proceeded to steal her money. It was only after they pirated her landline, which was then used to robocall their other victims around the world, that her children, now unable to reach her at home, discovered what was happening to their mother.

不过我的朋友弗兰(Fran)的妈妈就没有这么幸运了。她在一个月内损失了四万美元，因为一个手机盗诈骗团伙告诉她，她赢了一场竞赛，获得了一大笔现金奖金。只要他们获得授权，就把奖金存入她的银行账户。他们在获取银行和信用卡账户号码之后，就把它们和贝宝(PayPal)的一个账户关联起来，从那里偷她的钱。他们还盗用她的固定电话给世界各地的其他受害者拨打自动语音电话，她的孩子们因此打不通她家里的电话，这才知道发生了什么事。

“They were calling her on her cellphone all day and night, demanding more and more information they promised would result in her winning this prize money,” recalled Fran, who then contacted the F.B.I. “The scariest thing is they had built up this relationship with her and she trusted them,” Fran said, adding that they had started asking about whether she had a mortgage on the house. “That was what was next on their agenda, taking her home.”

“他们一天到晚往她的手机上打电话，要求获得更多信息，他们向她保证那些信息能帮助她获得那笔奖金，”弗兰回忆说。她后来向联邦调查局报告了此事。“最可怕的是，他们已经和她建立了这种关系，她信任他们，”弗兰说。弗兰补充说，他们开始询问她的房子有没有抵押。“那是他们的下一步计划：窃取她的房子。”

But what is far worse is what these schemes do emotionally to older people. “We had to change all my mother’s phone numbers, which meant her friends could not reach her and she lost all confidence and trust in her helpers,” Fran said. “She was mostly just horribly embarrassed,” she added, “and, of course, it affected her health.”

更糟糕的是，这些诈骗活动伤害了老年人的感情。“我们更换了妈妈的所有电话号码，那意味着，她的朋友们无法和她取得联系，她对护理人员也失去了信心和信任，”弗兰说。“最重要的是，她觉得非常尴尬，”弗兰补充说，“当然那也影响了她的健康。”

I know I don’t want to stop my parents from giving money to their favorite community organizations and Catholic charities (as long as they are real ones), nor am I immune to an alluring infomercial (what lured my father into the overpriced bleach box).

我并不想阻止父母捐钱给他们喜欢的社区组织和天主教慈善机构（只要它们是真实的），况且我本人对诱人的电视促销节目（就是诱惑我父亲买下高价漂白水的那种节目）也没有抵抗力。

My family still kids me about the ’70s box set (12 CDs of Tony Orlando and Dawn, the Captain & Tennille and Helen Reddy) that I was seduced into buying for an exorbitant price when we first moved back to the United States four years ago. But I also think our generation is smarter when it comes to these kinds of cybercrimes than our parents are.

四年前我们刚搬回美国时，我没抵挡住诱惑，买下了漫天要价的70年代流行歌曲套装（包括托尼·奥兰多和道恩乐团[Tony Orlando and Dawn]、船长和坦尼尔组合[Captain & Tennille]以及海伦·雷迪[Helen Reddy]的12张CD）。直到现在我的家人还拿这事嘲笑我。但是我觉得我们这一代对这种网络犯罪比父母们更警觉一些。

Though who knows until we are old and it happens to us.

不过，天知道等我们老的时候会发生什么事。