The Young Fall for Scams More Than Seniors Do. Time for a Warning.

Fake-Check Scams

These often involve a very real piece of paper, which appears to be drawing on a business or personal bank account, or rendered as a money order or a cashier’s check. It looks so authentic that the recipient doesn’t catch on and the bank doesn’t immediately reject it.

Then comes the con, which is a follow-up message asking for some of the money back: “Sorry, this is an accidental overpayment” or “Please use some of the money to perform mystery shopping of online money transfer services.”

These checks can arrive in the mail, appearing to be a prize or a rebate — just the kind of payment that your banking app can quickly digest through your phone’s camera. Often, they’re a twist on an employment scam: A hustler overpays the applicant the hustler just hired, supposedly by accident — and then wants some of the money back.

People in their 20s are more than twice as likely as older adults to fall prey to this sort of thing, according to the Federal Trade Commission. Many of them haven’t used checks much, and they may not be aware that while federal rules require banks to make funds from checks available quickly, those same banks may take many more days to root out a fake one. Once they do, they usually want the money back from the victim for having introduced the bad check into the system.

Student Loan Scams

This is already a problem, but it could get a lot worse very soon.

Tens of millions of borrowers have their federal student loan payments on pause right now, thanks to governmental efforts to keep them out of financial trouble during the pandemic. But as soon as Oct. 1, a switch will flip and most of those people will need to start the repayment process.

Even in the best of times, it’s hard for student loan borrowers to get good help from their servicers. And meltdowns seem inevitable this fall.

“It just makes the situation totally ripe for scammers,” said Seth Frotman, executive director of the Student Borrower Protection Center.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/25/your-money/young-seniors-scams-warning.html