You’ve had it with relentless robocalls, the automated messages that at best are telemarketing and at worst are pitches from criminals who want to steal your cash or your identity.

Enough is enough with the deluge of unsolicited voice mails and the calls from phone numbers that look like they’re local but are spoofed (or disguised) by crooks who claim to be with the IRS or to have important information about your car warranty.

You’ve tried blocking numbers, to no avail. You’ve signed up on the National Do Not Call Registry. No difference. You’ve complained to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Nada.

Scam calls rebound from COVID crash

When the coronavirus pandemic erupted in early 2020, “we saw the first major drop in robocalls because call centers were closed, but now robocalls are exploding,” says Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail, which develops robocall-blocking software.

Robocall volume in the U.S. hit an estimated 5.7 billion calls — an all-time high — in October 2019, then sank to about 3 billion a month in the spring of 2020, according to YouMail’s Robocall Index. 

Spammers and scammers have since rebounded, with robocalls averaging 4.1 billion a month over the past year. That’s more than 1,500 calls per second.

“Having computers dialing a bunch of numbers is a fast, efficient and extremely cheap way to get to as many people as possible,” Quilici says, adding that scammers need only a tiny slice of call recipients to respond for their endeavors to pay off.

Some robocalls are legal

Amid the din, some robocalls are legitimate. Charities, pollsters and medical-service providers are among those who can legally autodial you. The American Red Cross can robocall you to ask for blood donations, for example, and your doctor’s office may do so to remind you of an appointment.

But when it comes to bad actors, keep in mind that mobile apps can beat them back. Also, importantly, the FCC now requires voice-service providers to implement call-authentication technology on the Internet Protocol (IP) portions of their networks. 

The James Bond–sounding “STIR/SHAKEN” authentication enables providers to verify that the caller ID information transmitted matches the caller’s real phone number. This anti-spoofing step was mandated by the federal TRACED (Telephone Robocall Abuse Criminal Enforcement and Deterrence) Act, an AARP-endorsed measure signed into law at the end of 2019.

A united front

On the corporate side, the trade group USTelecom established the Industry Traceback Group to identify the sources of illegal robocalls and work with governments to “bring to justice individuals and entities responsible,” says Patrick Halley, USTelecom’s senior vice president of policy and advocacy. 

The source of an illegal robocall — even one from outside the U.S. — often can be identified in 24 hours, Halley says. While billions of illegal and unwanted robocalls are still placed annually, fewer of them are reaching consumers, thanks to call-authentication, call-blocking and call-labeling tools that designate incoming calls as spam, he says.

For example, AT&T, the largest U.S. carrier, says it is blocking more than 1 billion robocalls a month.

Best practices for consumers

To join in the fight, consumers are urged to:

• Download a call blocker. First, try a free solution to see if it does the trick. No-cost services from firms such as YouMail and Nomorobo are carrier-agnostic. (Nomorobo is free for landlines but $1.99 a month for cellphones.) Your mobile carrier has free tools, too.
  
• Experiment with call-blocking tools, apps and options, to strike the right balance between the calls you want and those you don’t. It may take trial and error to avoid a “false positive,” the term for a legitimate call that is stopped.
  
• Let a call go to voice mail if it gets through a robocall app and you don’t recognize the caller. If the caller claims to be from, say, Citibank, don’t call back a number left on voice mail. Use a number that you know is legitimate, such as one on a statement or credit card.
  
• Hang up if it’s a live person calling, as computer-based robocall systems allow. Do not engage.
  
• Learn what security tools your provider offers. See Help for consumers, below.
• Heed the latest advice from the FTC and the FCC.

https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.521.0_en.html#goog_987922511Play Video

Avoid Illegal Robocalls With 4 Easy Tricks

Help for consumers

AARP asked the three dominant wireless companies what they are offering. Here’s a summary.

AT&T

• AT&T Call Protect blocks all known fraud calls outright, while suspected spam is labeled so users can choose whether to answer. The company says it blocks or labels about 1 billion robocalls a month.
  
• For a fee, users can download an advanced version of the Call Protect app that includes caller ID and allows users to block, allow or send certain call types to voicemail.
  
• The company’s fraud team uses machine learning to identify suspicious call patterns and prevent illegal calls.
  
• AT&T uses automated scanning to identify and help block spam. 

T-Mobile

• T-Mobile and Sprint cellular plans include Scam Shield, a free set of tools that alerts users when a call is likely a scam and blocks calls the network considers to be more serious threats.
  
• Its plans now include free caller ID.
  
• Customers receive a free “proxy telephone number,” a second number to give out when looking to keep one’s main number private.
  
• Customers are allowed a free number change if their current one becomes a magnet for excessive spam calls.

Verizon

• Verizon says it has blocked more than 20 billion unwanted calls to date using tools such as Call Filter, a free app available to most customers that automatically blocks calls the company determines are likely fraudulent.
  
• Call Filter Plus, which costs $2.99 a month, allows users to create a list of numbers to block. It also includes caller ID, access to a database of 100 million known spam callers, and a visual spam risk meter.
  
• Verizon has created fake “honeypot” lines to track illegal robocall campaigns and notify law enforcement, says spokeswoman Kate Jay. As of late 2021, the lines had revealed more than 250,000 scams, Jay says.

Reprinted from AARP.org

What seems private might not stay secure

Texts can be copied, screenshot, shared, and depending on the messaging system, may lack encryption or other stringent measures to keep everything private. Moreover, the contents may be inappropriate or misconstrued.

So what should you never include in a text? The answers aren’t always simple.

“From an etiquette perspective, it really depends,” says author and etiquette authority Lizzie Post, the great-great granddaughter of Emily Post and co-president of the Emily Post Institute. “To say, ‘Never’ for everything feels quite final, doesn’t it? And I am sure there are many different caveat situations out in the world.”

In no particular order, here are 13 things you should (almost) never put in a text, or at least consider before including them.

Would you want to read certain things in a message?

1. Don’t report a death. This is especially true if the deceased is someone close to the recipient. A text is no substitute for delivering devastating news face to face or over the phone.

There are exceptions, of course. If the recipient and person who has died have a bit more distance, it might be OK to pass along the news in a text, perhaps with details about memorial services. Apply common sense and consider how you would feel getting such news via text.

2. Don’t end a relationship. Breaking up with someone via text is harsh, cowardly, cold and inconsiderate. The dreaded phrase “It’s not you, it’s me,” might come off even worse in a text.

“I do think for the most part breakups should be over the phone or in person, as best they can be,” Post says. “At the same time, letting someone you’ve been on two Tinder dates with know that you’re not going to see them again is perfectly fine.”

3. Don’t express unrequited feelings of love, the flip side of No. 2. Don’t pour it on too thick, especially if your relationship is not exactly on solid ground.

4. Go easy on ALL CAPS. Sorry, but YOU’RE SHOUTING AND IT’S RUDE! If you’re really that angry, perhaps you should calm down before sending texts of any kind.

5. Avoid sarcasm. Beyond words, we usually can tell when people are being sarcastic in person by reading the expression on their faces and tone of their voices.

Absent the social cues, conveying sarcasm, or, for that matter, irony, is a lot more difficult in a text, even with visual aids such as smiley faces, winks, and the colorful pictures and symbols known as emojis that are meant to help you impart a certain mood or idea.

That old spelling tip about ‘assume’ applies

6. Understand emojis. Speaking of emojis, some may have a hidden meaning or slang. That eggplant emoji 🍆 probably isn’t really referring to the garden vegetable, nor is the peach 🍑 just Georgia’s favorite fruit. While we’re at it, this smiling swirl of brown 💩 isn’t soft-serve chocolate ice cream.

Avoid embarrassment and search Google to decode meanings of these and other emojis that are perhaps a bit spicier than what you have in mind. They’re frequently not G-rated.

7. Be wary of abbreviations. Most people know LOL as shorthand for “laughing out loud,” or “NP” for “no problem.” But TBH (to be honest), it could become a problem when you appear to be trying too hard, using abbreviations without much thought or fully understanding their intent. If so, don’t be surprised to get a response with SMH (shaking my head) or worse, STFU, which you’ll have to look up on your own.

8. Don’t write an opus. No one wants to read War and Peace as a text. Keep the message concise, so it is not answered with an TL;DR (too long, didn’t read).

9. Watch typos. “It” is different than “In,” and we all make mistakes texting on the fly. But if you’re communicating with an employer, client or customer, take an extra second to read the message before hitting Send. You don’t want to leave a sloppy impression.

That said, given the generally casual nature of texting, the traditional rules of punctuation often don’t apply. You can find plenty of chatter in social media about how adding a period at the end of a sentence within a text may come across as off-putting or negative.

10. Don’t complain about your boss.  What did we tell you earlier about sending a text to the wrong person? If you value your job, assume your words can and will be used against you.

No texting ill of others, also true IRL (in real life)

11. Don’t spread gossip. A reprise: What did we just mention in No. 10? Whomever you’re gossiping about may see it, too.

12. Leave out personal data. Insecure texts should not include your birthdate, financial account numbers, passwords, Social Security number, and other personal details that crooks would be licking their chops to get at to spread malware or steal your identify.

13. Consider political ramifications. You’re passionate about political issues and may justifiably attempt to persuade friends to join your cause.

Just keep in mind that your views could go viral. If you have second thoughts about having your opinions splattered across social media or published somewhere for all to see, avoid putting them in a text.

Reprinted from AARP.org

In their never-ending pursuit of your money and identity, criminals are constantly coming up with new cons. Here’s a closer look at eight relatively new types of scams that are becoming more common, along with expert advice on avoiding them. Check out the list of today’s hottest emerging frauds.

1. Google Voice Scam

Let’s say you’ve posted a notice online — an item for sale, for example, or a plea to find a lost pet — and included your phone number. In this scam the crook will call you, feign interest, but say they want to verify first that you aren’t a scammer. They tell you that you are about to get a verification code from Google Voice (their virtual phone and text service) sent to you, and ask you to read it back. What’s really going on: They are setting up a Google Voice account in your name. “They can go on to perpetrate scams and pretend to be you, hiding their footprint from law enforcement,” says Eva Velasquez, CEO of the Identity Theft Resource Center.

How to stay safe: “Never share verification codes with anyone,” Velasquez says. If you have fallen for this scam, you’ll find steps to reclaim your account at the Google Voice Help Center.

2. Rental Assistance Cons

As eviction bans in cities and states expire, renters should be on the lookout for rental assistance scams, says Deborah Royster, assistant director at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Over 583,000 older adults were behind on their rent in mid-2021, opening the door for scammers to impersonate government or nonprofit employees and to request personal info and money up front for applications.

How to stay safe: Apply only to legit rental assistance programs run by government or nonprofit groups, Royster says. Find programs in your area at cfpb.gov.

3. Fake-Job Frauds

Scammers harvest contact info and personal details from résumés posted on legit job websites like Indeed, Monster and CareerBuilder. Then, pretending to be recruiters, they call, email, text or reach out on social media with high-salary or work-at-home job offers. Sometimes the goal is to get additional info about you; other times it’s to persuade you to send money for bogus home-office setups or fake fees.

How to stay safe: Use a separate email address just for job hunting, and set up a free Google Voice phone number that rings on your phone but keeps your real number private, says Alex Hamerstone, advisory solutions director for the information security company TrustedSec. If you get a sudden job offer, independently call the company’s human resources department to verify it is real, suggests Sandra Guile, spokeswoman for the International Association of Better Business Bureaus.

4. Fake Amazon Employees

One-third of business-impostor fraud complaints involve scammers claiming they’re from Amazon, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports. Older adults are four times more likely to lose money and get hit harder — losing a median of $1,500, versus $814 for younger adults — in such scams. “Amazon is the biggest, best-known company in the [online sales] space,” Hamerstone says. So the impersonator scams “feel real” to people.

How to stay safe: Ignore calls, text messages, emails and social media messages about suspicious account activity, raffles or unauthorized purchases. If you think you may have a real account problem, contact Amazon customer support at 888-280-4331.

5. Cryptocurrency ATM Payments

Those ATMs cropping up in convenience stores, gas stations and big retailers are scammers’ newest payment method. Pretending to be government officials, utility agents or sweepstakes representatives, they direct you to pay a purported fee, bill or handling charge by sending cryptocurrency bought at these ATMs to an untraceable digital wallet. “It’s irreversible. There’s no way to get your money back,” says Lisa Cialino, an attorney with the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation.

How to stay safe: According to the FTC, “nobody from the government, law enforcement, a utility company or prize promoter will ever tell you to pay them with cryptocurrency. If someone does, it’s a scam, every time.”

6. Local Tax Impostors

Scammers are impersonating state, county and municipal law enforcement and tax collection agencies to get you to share sensitive personal information or send money to “settle your tax debt.” They may call, email or mail letters threatening to revoke your driver’s license or passport. Some pretend to offer state tax relief. 

How to stay safe: Ignore any such calls and emails. Real tax agencies, from the IRS to your town tax collector, do business by mail and won’t ask you for passwords or bank account or credit card info. They also won’t threaten to call the police or ask you to pay with gift cards, peer-to-peer (P2P) payment apps or cryptocurrency. 

7. ‘Favor for a Friend’ Gift Cards

You receive an email from a friend asking for a quick favor. She’s having trouble with a credit card or store account and, annoyingly, can’t buy a gift card she needs for a birthday present. Will you buy the card and call her with the numbers on the back? She’ll pay you back. But this favor’s really a fraud, as it’s almost always an impostor sending the request, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) warns. If you do as told, you’ll never see the money again because gift cards don’t have the protections that debit and credit cards have.

How to stay safe: Call or text your friend to confirm the person really needs the favor. Target, Google Play, Apple, eBay and Walmart were the top cards used by scammers in 2021. “Always double check before sending someone money,” the BBB advises.

8. P2P Payment Requests

Scammers are increasingly demanding payment via money-transfer apps like Venmo, Zelle and Cash App. It’s so convenient — you pay in seconds from your phone or computer. But these payments usually cannot be canceled.

How to stay safe: Only use P2P apps to send money to friends and family. And turn on the security-lock feature that requires entering a passcode to make a payment.

Reprinted from AARP Fraud Network

For many financial documents, just 3 years — for others, practically forever

You may be starting at a heap of paperwork when you finish filing your 2021 federal taxes, which are due April 18. Your first urge may be to sweep them all into a paper bag and put the bag under a stairwell. Don’t do that. Instead, keep only the records you need to keep. And that starts with sorting them out.

Try to stay tidy

Neat, complete, well-organized financial files speed the process of filing your tax return and can keep you from making errors. Maintaining some semblance of order after you’ve filed your return — rather than tossing it into a file cabinet or shoebox — will come in handy if the Internal Revenue Service has questions about your form.

“The biggest blunder is not being organized about what records ought to be kept,” says Neal Stern, CPA, a member of the American Institute of CPAs’ National CPA Financial Literacy Commission. “There are people who somehow believe that they should keep all of their paperwork, but they don’t think through what the important paperwork is that should be kept or how it should be kept or how it should be organized.”

People who keep too many financial papers often struggle just as much to find needed documents as those who don’t keep any files. “They end up having drawers full of old papers,” Stern says. “It’s not much better than not having the paperwork if you can’t figure out what you have and where it is.”

What to keep

For an individual tax return, you’ll need to save anything that supports the figures you entered on your return. You should keep the W-2 and 1099 forms you get from employers, for example, as well as any 1099-B or 1099-INT tax documents from banks, brokerages and other investment firms.

If you lost your job last year and received unemployment benefits from the government, be sure to keep your 1099-G form, which reports the amount you have received. The government is gave a tax exemption of up to $10,200 of unemployment income ($20,400 for married couples filing jointly) received in the 2020 tax year, but that exemption disappears for the 2021 tax year, so you’ll owe federal income taxes on the entire amount. 

If you’re itemizing your deductions, keep receipts for these: credit card and other receipts, invoices, mileage logs and canceled checks. If you’ve bought or sold mutual fund shares, stocks or other securities, you’ll need confirmation slips (or brokerage statements) that say how much you paid for the investments and how much you received when you sold them. Keep a copy of all your investments for at least three years after you have sold them.

Similarly, if you’ve sold a home, you’ll need records that prove what you paid and what you received from its sale. And if you’ve sold a rental property, you’ll need detailed records of the amount you’ve invested in the property over the years, as well as how much you deducted for depreciation. It’s wise to keep Schedule E, the form you fill out every year for rental income, as long as you own the property.

How long to keep it

You’ve likely heard that seven years is the perfect period to hold on to tax records, including returns. The actual time to keep records isn’t that simple, according to Steven Packer, CPA, in the Tax Accounting Group at Duane Morris.

“In most cases, tax records don’t have to be kept for seven years because there’s a three-year statute of limitations,” Packer explains. “So assuming there’s no fraud or nothing else wrong, the IRS cannot look at your tax returns beyond that three-year statute.”

The statute of limitations has some important exceptions, and if your tax return has any of these, you’ll need to keep your returns and your records longer than three years. For example, the statute of limitations is six years if you have substantially underestimated your income. The threshold for substantial understatement is 25 percent of your gross income. If you claim your gross income was $50,000 and it was really $100,000, you’ve substantially understated your income.

The six-year rule also applies if you have substantially overstated the cost of property to minimize your taxable gain. Say if you sold a piece of property for $150,000 and claimed you paid $125,000 instead of the actual $50,000, the IRS has six years to take action against you. And if you have omitted more than $5,000 in income from an offshore account, the statute of limitations is also six years.

Keep records for seven years if you file a claim for a loss from worthless securities or bad-debt deduction. If you haven’t filed a return, or if you have filed a fraudulent return, there’s no statute of limitations for the IRS to seek charges against you.

Property records can be forever

When you sell a property at a profit, you’ll owe capital gains tax on that profit. Calculating your capital gain often requires you to hang on to your records as long as you own your investment. You’ll need those records to calculate the cost basis for the property, which is the actual cost, adjusted upward or downward by other factors, such as major improvements to the structure.

Calculating the cost basis on property you live in is relatively simple because most people can avoid paying capital gains tax on their primary residence. If you sell your primary residence, those filing individual returns can exclude up to $250,000 in gains from taxes, and couples filing jointly can exclude up to $500,000. You must have lived in your home for at least two of the past five years to qualify for the exclusion. Even so, you’ll need to save your records of the transaction for at least three years after selling the property.

If your sale doesn’t meet the above criteria, you’ll need to keep records of significant improvements for at least three years after the sale. IRS Publication 523, “Selling Your Home,” spells out what improvements you can add to your cost basis — and reduce your capital gains bill. The same holds true for rental property.

Most brokerages will compute your cost basis for stocks, bonds and mutual funds, although they are only to calculate your cost basis for stock transactions since 2011 and mutual funds since 2012. It’s a good idea to keep all your transaction records, however, in case you change brokers. Your broker is not obligated to hold your records indefinitely. In addition, keep records of any inherited property and its value when the owner died, which will become your tax basis.

There’s nothing wrong with saving your records longer than the legal limits if it gives you peace of mind and you can stand the clutter. You might consider storing some records in the cloud — remote computer storage space that you rent.

Although many people keep paper records, it’s also smart to have the documents converted to electronic files and stored in the cloud. It’s a good idea to have two sets, in case one is destroyed. Finally, remember that your state may have separate rules for keeping records; check with your accountant or state tax department. 

Reprinted from AARP

New technologies can offer connections, education, entertainment, food, safety

Nearly 90 percent of adults over age 50 — across all ages, health-status categories, incomes and races — want to remain at home and age in place, Capital Caring Health, a nonprofit provider of elder, advanced illness and hospice care, found in a recent national survey that it took in partnership with the online health information resource WebMD.

Respondents with fair or poor health and those with household incomes of below $50,000 are less familiar with options they may have, including aging in place and hospice care, the survey, released in May, showed.

“Aging in place is what we want, and we can bolster our ability to do so safely, especially for those living alone, with the right technology in the home at the right time,” says Laurie Orlov, founder and principal analyst at Aging and Health Technology Watch, a market research firm in Port St. Lucie, Florida, that tracks technology trends about older adults.

“Technology enables more effective communication to the services you may need outside the home, including telehealth platforms, services that can bring you food, links to transportation, connecting with other people, staying entertained and helping you learn new things,” Orlov adds. “There has been a big leap forward over the past four to five years.”

Ramon T. Llamas, research director at International Data Corp., a Needham, Massachusetts–based provider of market intelligence, agrees: “Previously, the problem with ‘aging in place’ is someone might feel separated from the world, but technology remedies this by fostering connections to the outside — not just to caregivers but to the services they may [have] to depend on to live on their own terms.

“Thankfully, today’s devices are also much easier to use, to help stay in touch and combat loneliness and get help, if needed, through wearables and other hardware,” Llamas continues.

While far from a complete list, here are seven tech items to help loved ones age in place.

Alarm.com Wellness

Activity-based sensors around the home can discreetly reassure loved ones that those living alone are going about their daily business and all is OK.

If a change in pattern is detected, a remote family member, caregiver or emergency-response service is alerted via email, phone or text if the at-risk person is doing (or not doing) something.

For example, a small sensor could detect if an older adult hasn’t left the bedroom by, say 10 a.m., and that’s unusual for them, or if Mom or Dad hasn’t opened the fridge door or medicine cabinet in a specified number of hours.

Installation of these sensors, which is typically done by a professional, is often folded into the monitoring cost.

Alarm.com’s Wellness independent living solution integrates a suite of sensors and devices, like its Wellcam camera, with two-way audio and one-way video, and applies artificial intelligence and machine learning to the data generated to proactively detect changes that may suggest risks. The company says it can report changes in activity levels, sleeping and eating patterns, bathroom frequency and medication adherence, as well as emergency situations, like falls or wandering out of the home.

These unobtrusive sensors can go on cabinets, chairs, doors, under bedsheets, windows.

Coupled with Alarm.com’s home security solution, Wellness is typically between $40 to $60 a month, after installation costs (handled by a local service provider), but pricing depends on the service provider and the exact mix of devices and sensors.

Alexa Together

Ideal for aging family members living alone, Alexa Together, which is coming this year, offers many of the same features found in Care Hub, which Alexa Together is replacing. This includes activity alerts and an activity feed, which keeps loved ones in the loop with real-time updates pushed to their smartphone, 24/7 hands-free access to an urgent-response professional emergency helpline and compatibility with third-party fall-detection devices from Assistive Technology Services, Vayyar and other brands.

So your loved one can feel independent, caregivers will be able to remotely set reminders, manage shopping lists and more on a relative’s Amazon Echo device when Alexa Together launches later this year. The ability for multiple caregivers to provide support is scheduled to launch early next year. 

Alexa Together will be $20 a month or $200 a year after a free six-month trial. Current Care Hub customers will receive a free year of Alexa Together. Amazon says that all U.S. customers, even if they don’t sign up for Alexa Together, will be able to set up and use the emergency contact feature.

“And we can’t forget about the importance of reliable high-speed internet,” Orlov says. “Not everyone has broadband for these services, which is a very important consideration, too.”

Apple Watch and Lively

Smartwatches are getting smarter.

Apple Watch SE (from $280), for one, offers fall detection and an emergency SOS feature that can call 911 and notify your emergency contacts if it detects a sudden drop. It also offers fitness detection, a heart-rate monitor, sleep monitoring, voice-activated Siri support, water resistance to 50 meters and optional cellular connectivity, which is usually an extra $10 per month with your mobile phone provider. You can use Apple Watch to pay for items at retail by waving your wrist over a contactless terminal.

The top-of-the-line Apple Watch Series 7 (from $400) has a screen that’s 20 percent larger than last year’s Series 6, yet with narrower bezels, so the watch itself isn’t that much bigger. It’s ideal for those living alone and offers additional sensors to help gauge the wearer’s health, including a built-in electrocardiogram, to detect a dangerously high or low heart rate and irregular heart rhythms, and a monitor to assess the amount of oxygen carried in the body by sending light into your wrist.

If you prefer that your loved ones have access to a live operator in case of a fall or other emergency, there are services that work with Apple Watch, such as the Lively app (formerly GreatCall and owned by Best Buy).

You’ll have access to live agents you can talk to in an emergency, 24/7 access to a registered nurse or doctor for medical advice, and the option to stay connected with friends and family through the watch — plus, if desired, you can allow select people to know of your activity and whereabouts — for $30 per month with a two-year commitment.

Oculus Quest 2 and Rendever

This may seem like an old choice, but virtual reality headsets can be a powerful tool for those living alone, Llamas says: “You put on these lightweight headsets and can instantly play 18 holes of golf, as if you’re on a real course, for when you want to get out of your four walls but might not be able to. And it’s not just an immersive gaming platform, but an experiential thing, too.”

Oculus Quest 2 ($300 for the 64-gigabyte version or $400 for the 256GB model), for example, is easy to set up and use, as you don’t need to plug the headset into a PC, game console or smartphone. After placing the white headset over your face (it works with glasses, too), you are transported to a digital world, complete with 360-degree visuals, tied to head tracking, which means wherever you turn your head in real life — up, down, side to side, or even looking behind you — it’s as if you’re looking at this virtual world with your own eyes.

And it doesn’t stop there. Audio is also “spatialized” in a VR world; thus, you can hear sounds all around you. What’s more, Oculus Quest 2 includes controllers for you to “touch” content that isn’t really there, and with some experiences, you simply use your hands to reach out and interact.

Llamas also cites Rendever, a virtual reality platform for older adults that has applications such as “customized reminiscence therapy,” to allow users to take a stroll down memory lane. Rendever is typically sold to senior living communities. By folding in home movies, photos and other media, it enables people to have experiences like revisiting their childhood home or a town they grew up in or attending their wedding all over again.

The VR headsets are networked, so all users view the same experience, but each individual controls what they are looking at inside the experience. Afterward, the participants can talk about what they’ve just been through.

Portal Go

Video chatting, perhaps over a meal with a friend or family member, is a great way to stay in touch.

The new Portal Go ($200) from Facebook is a 10-inch display you can bring to rooms throughout your home. The first video calling device from the company, it has a built-in rechargeable battery. It’s scheduled to be available this fall.

Make calls over some of today’s most popular platforms (Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Zoom) with a smart camera that automatically pans and zooms to always keep you in frame. If someone else walks into the room, the camera widens to bring them into the picture.

Many older adults and their friends are already on Facebook, Llamas says, “so products like the Portal family make it easy to connect with one button or your voice. It’s a great way to stay in touch with audio and video — the closest thing to being there in person.”

There are no subscription costs for Portal Go. Other features include an integrated Alexa assistant to ask questions or control your smart-home gear; high-fidelity audio, to fill a room with music or podcasts; and optional fun filters and background effects, to spice up your conversations.

Reprinted from AARP

Some brazen scammers rip off unwary taxpayers by impersonating agents of the Internal Revenue Service. They’ll call and insist you have an unpaid tax bill and face arrest unless you pay up, immediately.

From October 2013 through March 2021, the Treasury Department’s inspector general for tax administration logged more than 2.5 million reports of scam calls from IRS impersonators, with some 16,000 victims collectively losing more than $82.6 million. 

Con artists have numerous ways to make the hoax seem convincing. They can trick a caller ID to make it appear that the call is coming from an actual IRS office. They may even know part of the mark’s Social Security number.

One massive, years-long fraud scheme, eventually busted by federal authorities, saw call centers in India use information from data brokers to find potential marks, whom they contacted and scared into making payments to co-conspirators in the United States. Older Americans were among the prime targets. Two dozen U.S.-based participants have been convicted and sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years, according to the Justice Department.

The IRS says impostors are increasingly turning to robocalls to broaden their reach, with automated messages requesting a call back to resolve a supposed tax problem. Scammers also deploy phishing emails, often targeting college students, faculty and staff members with .edu addresses, the IRS and Federal Trade Commission warn. The emails, with IRS logos and subject lines like “Tax Refund Payment,” link to a website that asks for personal data such as Social Security and driver’s license numbers to facilitate the “refund.”https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.509.0_en.html#goog_219519002Play Video

How to Tell if You’re the Target of an IRS Scam

Warning Signs 

• It’s a phone call. The IRS communicates mostly through the mail, including in cases of delinquent taxes. It will generally make contact by phone or in person only after a taxpayer has received multiple written notices. 
• The pretend IRS official demands immediate payment and threatens to call police and have you arrested — things the actual tax agency never does.
• An email purporting to be from the IRS links to a website where you’re asked to provide personal and financial information to facilitate or calculate a tax refund.

Do’s

• Do hang up immediately if a caller claims to be from the IRS, unless you have reason to believe you really do owe taxes, such as prior written communication from the agency.
• Do forward any unsolicited emails in which someone claims to be from the IRS or the Treasury Department to [email protected]. Do not click on any links or open attachments. 
• Do consider filing a fraud alert or freezing your credit with the three major credit-reporting bureaus if a scammer knows part of your Social Security number.
• Do ask for identification if you’re visited by someone claiming to be from the IRS. Actual employees carry two official credentials: a “pocket commission” and an HSPD-12 card, a standard ID for federal workers. An IRS employee will provide, on request, a dedicated agency phone number for you to verify the information on the card.

Don’ts

• Don’t provide or confirm personal or financial information over the phone to someone who claims to be a government official. 
• Don’t respond to a purported IRS email or text message asking for your information. The IRS doesn’t do that. 
• Don’t agree to pay a tax bill with a gift card, prepaid debit card or wire transfer. Scammers prefer these methods because they’re difficult to trace and can be used almost anywhere.
• Don’t give credit or debit card numbers to a caller claiming to be an IRS official. The IRS says it never asks for such information over the phone.
• Don’t assume a caller who tells you to verify his or her phone number by checking the IRS website is on the level. Caller IDs can be rigged to display the number of a real IRS office.
• Don’t be bullied. A scammer will issue threats and demands, but according to the IRS, if you actually owe back taxes, you will get a bill in the mail and have an opportunity to appeal or to question the amount.

Reprinted from AARP

If you want to donate to relief efforts for Ukrainians, the Better Business Bureau (BBB) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) have some advice about how to make sure you choose a legitimate and effective charity.

The BBB warns that scammers will likely create fake donation websites and make fraudulent pleas for money to supposedly help the people of war-torn Ukraine.

Such deception “puts donors at risk of money loss and identity theft,” says Steve J. Bernas, president and CEO of the BBB of Chicago and Northern Illinois.

Before giving, donors should visit BBB’s Give.org for tips on how to best help. Not all relief groups will provide timely help to those in need unless they already have a presence in Ukraine, it says.

In addition to the BBB, other groups that check out charities include CharityNavigator, CharityWatch and GuideStar.

The BBB has six tips for prospective donors:

1. Can the charity get to the impacted area? Not all relief organizations will be positioned to provide relief quickly, so check that a charity already has a presence in Ukraine.

2. Should you send clothing and food? Local drives to collect clothing and food to send overseas may not be practical, since the logistics of delivering and dispersing the goods will be challenging.

3. Does the charity meet the BBB Standards for Charity Accountability? These include such criteria as what percentage of gifts get to those in need.

4. Is the charity experienced in emergency relief? Established disaster-relief charities are the best bet to help deliver aid promptly. New entrants may have difficulty, despite the best of intentions.

5. Considering a crowdfunding appeal? The safest route is to give to someone you know and trust. Keep in mind that some crowdfunding sites do minimal vetting. Also, review the platform’s policies on fees and the distribution of donations.

6. Does a charity make exaggerated claims, such as “100 percent will be spent on relief”? Since all charities have fundraising and administrative expenses, any organization claiming otherwise is potentially misleading people.

FBI cautions

According to the FBI, scams are prevalent after high-profile events, and “criminals often use tragedies to exploit you and others who want to help.”

The FBI cautions that charity scams can take the form of emails, social media posts, cold calls and crowdfunding requests. Fraudsters even pretend to be with the government.

Here are four FBI suggestions:

1. Beware of groups with copycat names or names similar to those of reputable, well-known organizations.

2. Don’t click on links or open attachments from strangers.

3. Don’t provide personal information in response to an email, robocall or robotext.

4. If you want to donate, use a check or credit card. Remember, if a group asks you to donate using cash, gift cards, virtual currency or a wire transfer, it’s probably a scam.

As demand for COVID-19 testing has soared, state and federal officials are warning consumers of three problems that can jeopardize their health and pocketbooks:

• Fake pop-up test sites have been reported in several states. They’re set up to steal personal information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers and health information.
  
• Impostors reportedly have crashed legitimate test sites. The crooks are said to pose as health care workers to try to grab your private information.
  
• Fake at-home test kits for COVID-19 are being peddled online.

Here’s more:

Fake test sites

Phony sites can be hard to spot, since they “look real, with legitimate-looking signs, tents, hazmat suits and realistic-looking tests,” according to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), a consumer-protection agency.

There have been reports of sites claiming to have free tests but billing consumers later, the FTC says. Other complaints are from people who never receive the test they were promised.

When a fake site obtains your personal information, it “can be used for identity theft or to run up your credit card bill,” the FTC says. Even worse, the sham sites are not “giving people the help they need to stay healthy.”

Never give out your Social Security number or passport number to get a COVID test, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) says.

More tips from the FTC:

• Get a referral. Go to a site recommended by your doctor or state or local health department. Do not trust a random testing site you see around town.
• Be skeptical. Did you hear about a new testing site on a neighborhood social media group or group email list? A “neighbor” could be a scammer, so be sure the site also is on a state or local health department’s website.
• Not sure a site is legit? Check with your local police or sheriff’s office. If a legitimate testing site has been set up, they should know about it. On the other hand, if a fake testing site is up and running, they’ll want to know.
• Avoid “look-alike” websites. Fake testing sites may require you to sign up online, so beware of fake sites that purposely look identical to those of well-known, trusted organizations or a state agency. Before entering personal information online, make sure that the website is secure and does not have misspellings or unfamiliar names in its URL.
• Be wary of unsolicited calls about testing sites. A legitimate company or health clinic will not call, text or email you without your permission. If you receive an unsolicited message, do not provide the caller or sender with personal information until you have confirmed it is a legitimate source. If you feel pressured to provide personal information, just hang up. 

Fake at-home test kits

Four free COVID tests per household are now available from the federal government at COVIDtests.gov, and private insurance companies are required to cover the cost of up to eight over-the-counter tests per month for each covered person, the CFPB says.

If you want to buy a test kit online, the CFPB urges people to:

• Check out the Food and Drug Administration’s list of authorized antigen test and PCR tests.
  
• Pay by credit card, since if you are charged for an order that you do not receive, you can dispute the charge with the credit card company.

Nessel, Michigan’s attorney general, also suggests the following:

• Check out a seller before buying, especially if you’re on an unfamiliar site. Search the company’s name with words such as “scam,” “complaint” or “review.”
  
• Compare online reviews for a wide variety of websites to better know a company, product or service.

Reprinted from AARP Fraud Network