94 - Year - Old Jack Holder Survived Pearl Harbor Falls Victim To Internet Scam

[TheMorningStar]

Thieves stole the life savings of a Navy veteran, who survived Pearl Harbor and flew missions over both fronts during World War II.

"I've seen devastation I'll never forget," Jack Holder said of the attacks on Pearl Harbor, which he witnessed when he was 18.

Holder is now 94, and completely healthy.

He flew in the Battle of Midway, and later over the English Channel in a B-24.

Following a career in the Navy, Holder lived and worked all over the world in industries ranging from oil to the airlines to professional golf.

After all of his worldly experience, Holder cannot believe he fell victim to a common scam.

Someone claiming to be from the Publisher's Clearing House called his home in Chandler and told him he'd won $4.7 million, and a new Mercedes Benz.

"I'd entered their drawings years ago, and they said they keep the entries for many years," Holder said.

The scammers told Holder he had to pay taxes before he was given his prizes.

He and his fiancée, Ruth Calabro, wrote several checks, totaling $43,000.

When the thieves asked for another installment of $100 bills tucked into the pages of a magazine, they knew they'd been scammed.

http://www.hawaiinewsnow.com/story/...or-veteran-has-life-savings-stolen-by-thieves

 

[BostonBurns]

Horrible story, but on the bright side, at least he wasn't only 72

 

[cubby]

Poor sod!

My father in law used to fall for this kind of stuff all the time. Maybe it was legitimate maybe it wasn't, but he was supporting Brazilian orphans and buying mosquito netting for African children, $10 here and $100 there, we used to spend all weekend unsubscribing him from things that he'd signed up for that he had no idea what it was, then he'd tell us, we needed to mind our own business.

He lost a lot of money on internet auctions, where you buy block of bids then you could only bid in those blocks, it looked like you spent a very low amount when you actually spent 10 times that much.

If there was a scam out there he found it.

 

[Angiebla]

These fucking scammers are amoung the lowest of low pieces of shit. My grandma had dementia and had people scam money from her.

 

[sarahdownunder]

I often wonder if the reason why so many seniors get bamboozled by these scammers comes down to the fact that they were born in, and spent their formative years growing up in a world and society that's extremely different to today.

The concept of basic honour has all but disappeared. Most of us look at scammers and think 'filthy fuckers', smirk that we're too smart to get caught up in it and move right along. We rarely stop to think of the wider symbolism of just how little honour and decency an individual must have, in order to run these scams - especially against more vulnerable people, like our seniors.

It reminds me of the story of Bob Millin. In WW1 (may have been WW2, I can't remember) he was a British soldier and told to stroll up and down the battlefront, playing the bagpipes by his C/O, for morale purposes.

The Germans captured him, but did not shoot him or hurt him in any way. When he asked them why they didn't shoot him, they told him, they thought he was mad/crazy. That sense of honour, is not a key part of our social conscience anymore.

I think some of these senior cits are still operating under that instinctive awareness of basic honour being a part of an individuals actions and behaviours. Hence why some of them, get caught in the trap by these Nigerian fuckers, so easily.

 

[cubby]

My FIL was an Army Ranger, had several tours in Vietnam, did super secret squirrel work for US Government, a smart man with a PhD, but he was in his late 70's when he died and just so very innocent of just how ubiquitous and cunning scammers really are.

Like @sarahdownunder said, they grew up when what a man said was his bond and you could trust that they would follow thru on what they said with just a handshake. But he was just stubborn enough to believe that he couldn't be taken.

At least the man in this story could understand he had been scammed, my father in law wouldn't have ever believed it.

 

[Roberte]

My father was big in Publisher's Clearing House, and would buy things all the time from them. My sister would get mad because he could have gone to the store and bought the same items cheaper, but it was his money and she never stopped him. Before the internet people were scammed through the mail or over the phone.

I think people who do this to seniors like this should get a stiffer sentence if they are caught. I'm 64 now, so I guess I would be considered a senior, but I am very cautious about where I go online and who I talk to. I delete emails that look suspicious or I don't recognize who they are from.

 

[strabo100]

supposedly another reason for seniors to fall for those scam is cause they are ignorant of how certain process works and believe the scammers when the scammer tell them what to do.

here's the FBI page https://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/seniors

ex. My dad almost fell for a scam where they call him claiming to be Microsoft support and want him to let them remote log on to his computer to "fix it"...luckily my brother and I were visiting, so he told us that Microsoft support called him and he can't understand how to give them access to his computer to fix it. Once I got the phone, and heard the scammer speak with a indian accent, I told my brother, and we decide to keep him on the phone as long as possible to try to get information and also for shits and giggles. After the scammer realized we were on to him, he hung up, but we had gotten phone number, mailing address, name out of him, which I sent those info to the state AG. XD and I told my parents, if they ever have any computer problem, call me or my brother first.

 

[Exodus]

I worked as a banker for several years and have seen nearly all the run of the mill scams. The problems with the Older Generation is they still think they know better than us! I had this older Gal who came in to wire money too what appeared to be the "troubled relative in need" E-Mail after prying to get info out of her she told me to just mind my own business and send it. So i did.... Less than a week later her and her kids are in my office with the Daughter cursing me out stating I should have never sent that money ( I did as I was told, "After" pleading her NOT too)

Also had another woman come in and apply for a $75k Equity line of credit so she could send it to Nigeria!!!! I filled out the application, but discussed to her how I thought it was a terrible Idea throughout the process I did submit it, but not before emailing the back office to put a hold on the application to have an underwriter deny the damn thing, luckily her credit sucked and it didn't even get pass the initial screening, no need for someone to lose their house over this garbage.

The scams come in all flavors, fooling not just the old but young as well, I can't count the amount of times I was called by a teller to approve a Cashiers Check delivered via craigslist for a greater amount than the asking price, Thankfully they were easy to spot and I had the ability to just toss the damn thing in the shredder.

 

[JackBurton]

You'd think an old wealthy guy would have his shit together a bit more. What a moron.

I worked as a banker for several years

Were you one of the ones who nearly destroyed this country during that housing collapse not too long ago?

I don't know if there's a profession that sucks as much at their jobs as bankers do.

 

[Angels Mom]

supposedly another reason for seniors to fall for those scam is cause they are ignorant of how certain process works and believe the scammers when the scammer tell them what to do.

here's the FBI page https://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud/seniors

ex. My dad almost fell for a scam where they call him claiming to be Microsoft support and want him to let them remote log on to his computer to "fix it"...luckily my brother and I were visiting, so he told us that Microsoft support called him and he can't understand how to give them access to his computer to fix it. Once I got the phone, and heard the scammer speak with a indian accent, I told my brother, and we decide to keep him on the phone as long as possible to try to get information and also for shits and giggles. After the scammer realized we were on to him, he hung up, but we had gotten phone number, mailing address, name out of him, which I sent those info to the state AG. XD and I told my parents, if they ever have any computer problem, call me or my brother first.

They used to call my office about 2 times a month. They just called my business partner on her cell phone saying that there was a problem with her Windows computer.

If I remember correctly my step father fell for that one.
[doublepost=1464547818,1464547669][/doublepost]I heard about this one on the radio

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/11/11/ransomware/

 

[Alf]

Mine is the first one.

--Al

 

[cubby]

Yeah I get those all the time, too. I have a chromebook.

 

[Sejanus]

Why would you not check with Publishers Clearing house to see if it is legit?
Damn.

 

[LarzlovesJahi]

I heard about this one on the radio
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/11/11/ransomware/

We had that virus and lost all of our files except for the concerts my hunny tapes, 'cause the virus didn't recognize .wav files. What especially sucked about it was the fact that the message came five days after we got our desktop computer out of storage, where it had been for over a year while we were lifting our flood damaged home. Not sure if it was new or incubating in the computer during that time. My own fault for not backing up our files. *sheepish*

 

[Abroad]

I often wonder if the reason why so many seniors get bamboozled by these scammers comes down to the fact that they were born in, and spent their formative years growing up in a world and society that's extremely different to today.

The concept of basic honour has all but disappeared. Most of us look at scammers and think 'filthy fuckers', smirk that we're too smart to get caught up in it and move right along. We rarely stop to think of the wider symbolism of just how little honour and decency an individual must have, in order to run these scams - especially against more vulnerable people, like our seniors.

[...]

I think some of these senior cits are still operating under that instinctive awareness of basic honour being a part of an individuals actions and behaviours. Hence why some of them, get caught in the trap by these Nigerian fuckers, so easily.

There were always con-men and scammers about. Nothing new about that.

Where our senior citizens get caught out is that they are unfamiliar with the technology and trust it too implicitly.

 

[Exodus]

They used to call my office about 2 times a month. They just called my business partner on her cell phone saying that there was a problem with her Windows computer.

If I remember correctly my step father fell for that one.
[doublepost=1464547818,1464547669][/doublepost]I heard about this one on the radio

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2015/11/11/ransomware/

We get these guys calling in all the time where I work!! We are inherently bored sometimes and like to play along with them for awhile. My favorite time was when I made the guy get specific about every question he asked me telling him something different, he spent about 20 minutes on the phone with me trying to trouble shoot my O.S. confused as all hell as to what was going on before I discovered I was using Lindows aka Linspire "Wink" (Yes that is spelled correctly for those of you who have no idea about that O.S. look it up) I finally couldn't stop laughing and had to hang up...It was a blast while it lasted.