Targeted Watch out for scams that target LGBTQ seniors
Michael Herndon with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau JAMES RUSSELL | Contributing Writerjamesjourno@gmail.com It’s like something out of a dream: You open the Grindr app, and the first thing you see is a message from that handsome actor on your favorite show. “Hey there,” he writes, somehow still with his 1990s six-pack abs. “Wanna talk, sexy?” He asks to exchange phone numbers.
Perhaps you talk on the phone or video chat. Then he asks you for $4,000. You send it to him. Some would have seen the warning signs and ended the conversation way before the ask.
But sometimes, people are lonely and starved for attention. Perhaps, they think, the $4,000 is a way in. So, the transaction, performed via Western Union or Moneygram, is completed.
But then the actor disappears, taking with him your $4,000 and possibly your Social Security number, too. That’s the type of fraud people like Breanne McClellan deal with every day and the type of fraud Sherrill Wayland warns people about.
