Retiree Ripoffs

SPEAKER_00 0:05

You're gonna do a really great financial future. Tom and Don are talking real money.

Scams and Financial Awareness

SPEAKER_02 0:12

All right, folks, it's time to talk about scams again. I know we talk about scams every once in a while. We talk about investing more, though, so this is a change of pace. Uh and and the older we get, it seems, the more likely we are to fall for scams. And this, I guess, comes with the with the aging process, losing some of our cognitive ability. But these are pretty obvious scams, and you need to be aware of some of the tricks that these guys and gals, mainly guys overseas, pull to try to get you to hand over your money, and darn it if you aren't doing it. So stop it. We're gonna teach you a lesson. Welcome to Talking Real Money, the podcast, which is all it is now. It's not a radio show anymore. It's just a podcast. Well, just a podcast is global. Radio show is local. Anyway, uh why am I digressing? I'm Don McDonald, and that's Tom Cock, right there. That dude in the Seattle Bellevue area talking not at all.

SPEAKER_01 1:21

I'm waiting for my time to talk. I wasn't sure when when I was supposed to jump in. Usually you just chime in and trying to be a better person, more polite. More polite.

SPEAKER_02 1:30

Oh, okay. It's not due to losing your cognitive abilities.

SPEAKER_01 1:33

Not so far, but I'm sure it's close. Yeah, no joking on that.

SPEAKER_02 1:38

Well, this came about because of a piece in AARP, The Magazine. And I love the name of the title of the article, Sunshine, Pickleball, and Scams. Sunshine, pickleball, and scams, to what might they be referring? Well, if you're an old person, you probably know, even if you don't live in Florida, that they're referring to this wacky community called the Villages. It's only only in Florida.

SPEAKER_01 2:06

And it's known for many things other than sunshine, pickleball, and scams, too. But we'll leave it at that because it's a family show, basically.

SPEAKER_02 2:14

Well, no, it's really not. Well, okay, it is kind of. But it's so funny. I was talking to some friends and they had a friend who moved to the villages with his wife. Well, they're no longer together because the villages, I guess, are a hotbed of cheating.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

That's what I understand. I was one of the things, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 2:32

It's just okay. I'm gonna get to the scams in a minute. For those of you who don't know, the villages is like one of the now the largest cities. It's not really a city, it's a census-designated place in Florida. It has like 175,000 people living in this weird community of golf carts, uh shopping villages, and really pretty darned ugly houses.

SPEAKER_01 2:56

And can we add extramarital sex on top of that? And apparently getting ripped off. Yeah, and getting ripped off. Okay, fair enough.

SPEAKER_02 3:05

Uh, and uh to me, most of these scams are really obvious. We have got to, as older Americans, and this is our responsibility, Tom. I'm looking at you.

SPEAKER_01 3:17

Older, yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:18

We have to become as we get older, we have to become more tech savvy. We need to understand. If you're gonna use technology, understand the capabilities, the realities of the technology. It is not some magic window into your children's living room so that you can hang out with the grandkids. It's a device that can be used to rip you off, but only if you let yourself be ripped off. And I'm gonna give you an example, Tom. See if you'd fall for this one. You probably would.

SPEAKER_01 3:49

Yeah, probably would. Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

You have an iPad?

SPEAKER_01 3:52

Yes.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

Okay. Most people use their iPad primarily for browsing the web and emails and of course FaceTiming the kids.

Technology and Scams

SPEAKER_01 4:01

Mine is only used for my workouts because it has the program on there. I hit it, play it, boom.

SPEAKER_02 4:06

Okay, well, see, very specific uses. But if you were on the web and you just left it on the web or you clicked on a link, you were on the web, you clicked on a link, like this woman in the villages did, uh, her iPad started screaming at her that it was infected. Um iPads don't do that. Okay? They don't do that. They don't I I want you to understand this from the get-go. iPhones, iPads, computers do not warn you or tell you that they have been infected with a virus. That's a website that makes it look like a warning on your computer. It puts up a little window that says, warning, your computer, your iPad, your phone has been compromised. Call this number right now. Those products don't do that. If they do that to you, it is somebody trying to rip you off. This woman in the villages, 81 years old, had her iPad, it started screaming at her, she called the number, and they took twenty-five thousand dollars from her.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

Okay, I don't understand. Okay, how did she get from calling that to giving them twenty-five thousand? That's the part I always curious about.

SPEAKER_02 5:26

Well, he said that her bank account uh was infected. Ah. And that she needed to transfer it, that they were in the in the process, somebody was in the process of stealing the money from her bank account, and that she should send it to them, that they were government officials, and that they were going to put it in a safe account for her.

SPEAKER_01 5:48

You hear this on a regular basis. So it happens a lot, right? It's as shocking as that sounds, and the numbers are astounding. Because that when you gave me this piece, I went and looked. They say 150,000 people in the U.S., 60 and older, reported scams in 2024 with losses of about five billion dollars. That was up 40% from a year earlier, but the FBI says most frauds aren't even reported because people are ashamed of themselves. Yeah, or fearful. Um, so the numbers are higher. But then they walked through some of the that's a prevalent one. You hear a lot about that one a lot. But you still hear, I just read about a nuclear physicist who was scammed out of$100,000. Nuclear physicist, nuclear person, uh in an investment fraud that promised what? High returns and low risk. And we just mentioned on a recent program, too, where someone is going to prison for telling you you could have 15% a year guaranteed. Um and fifty million dollars was coughed up there. But then you still and then you hear about the other ones where an email asking whether they'd authorized a$900 purchase on their PayPal debit card, giving them a phone number to call, call this number. Um, guess what? Number was called, money transferred.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

I mean, again, I get them all the time. I get things all the time that say that that say uh things like, well, we're waiting to ship your order and we need we need credit card information to uh to uh authorize the charges. Or there's all the uh one guy, one of these guys in this article on the villages, uh, he got a call from the sheriff's office. It said on the screen, because you can fake that. You can fake the the caller ID or something.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

Oh, yeah, no, you see that on a regular basis.

SPEAKER_02 7:39

I get those on a regular basis, sure. Trevor Burrus, Jr. You can fake it. And they called and said uh you if you failed to appear for a federal grand jury and you've been fined seven thousand dollars. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

And bring the money now, or you're gonna go to the house.

SPEAKER_02 7:51

Yeah, well, they said that they were gonna come escort him to the office to pay the seven thousand dollars. So he just drove to the sheriff's office. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

Identifying Common Scams

SPEAKER_01 7:59

And they people they pose as everything from what you said police, bank staff, Medicare, uh grandchildren even get those scrap those frauds where they if you don't send the money now, grandpa I'm going to prison in Mexico, et cetera. Um and and here's the other one, because you've mentioned this on other programs. Now, of course, they're using artificial intelligence to even clone voices, right? I mean, this stuff is happening. It's shocking. Um so what do you do? I mean, what do you is this is happening? Are we at the moment where you don't answer your phone? You don't read email the windows.

SPEAKER_02 8:33

I mean, I have an iPhone.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 8:35

And I set up on my iPhone call screening. It has essentially eliminated all of the scam calls.

SPEAKER_01 8:44

And has every just it sends them away, just tells them.

SPEAKER_02 8:47

When they when I when my phone gets a call from a number it doesn't recognize, it says, Hold on a minute, give me your name and your information, and I'll see if he's available. And by then the scammers said, I don't want to say, or it if if they say, it comes up on my screen and I go, I don't know who that is. Goodbye.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

You're in a unique position because well, maybe I'm in the unique position. I talk to a lot of people that I don't know. So I give them my number, so they call. So I take a lot of those.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

I don't talk to a lot of people I don't know. And the other one that I get a lot, and this is this is a uh very clever scam, and this came about. This scam was actually initially because of the incompetence of the credit bureaus, like Equifax and TransUnion and these guys who got hacked in big ways. I think it was Equifax that got hacked in the in the biggest way. They got hacked, and these on the web is your bank account information and the last four digits of your social security number. It's out there. And they are able to get like uh information on your bank accounts. They're the there it's scary. I got a call from Bank of America, my bank.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

I remember this one.

SPEAKER_02 10:04

Saying we wanted we were checking on the on uh a number of transactions that look uh suspicious. And they w not they wanted no, they wanted the last four digits of my social. That was it. They didn't have that, but they had the bank account information.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

And you told them no dice.

SPEAKER_02 10:21

I said no. I said, and oh my they got really irate with me. And that's another dead giveaway.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

When they get mad.

SPEAKER_02 10:30

If they get mad at you, uh I said, I'll I'll tell you what, I'm gonna as soon as I pull over, it was in the car. I said, as soon as I pull over, I'll call Bank of America directly and uh check this out. He goes, Well, I I'm I am with Bank of America. I have your account right here in front of me. And uh and I hung up on him and he called back. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 10:50

They're persistent because there's a lot of money in this. Indeed, the easy money. And and from what I understand, you can set limits on transfers with your bank, brokerage, and other firms as well, right? You could you there's ways to sort of keep them from getting too much. But at the end of the day, taking that first call seems like a bit of a problem. Now, here's another one that seems to come up a lot. I just got asked about this last week. Um frauds with the the IRS, Internal Revenue Service, where they call you and tell you, you need to pay this, you need to pay it right now. Now, here's something to keep in mind. The Internal Revenue Service does not make phone calls. Ever. They mail, they mail stuff. They don't send emails, they don't send texts. Because I've gotten texts too before saying you gotta you gotta lean, you gotta pay right away. Um So don't do that. I like what you also said about independently verifying phone numbers. Don't just take it for granted that it is the sheriff's department, whoever you gotta I'd like what you said, Don, pull over and make the phone call yourself. And then the other one that I think is really good, because you alluded to this, but I think it should be stated. There's no reason to act quickly, basically under any circumstance.

SPEAKER_02 12:02

That's right. If they're if they're frantic for something from you, then you you need to immediately hang up. Oh, and I forgot, I wanted to add this one. There's the insult added to injury scam. Have you heard of this one? No. Where you get scammed and the scammers know you got scammed because they're scammers and they took your money. Then someone else who's affiliated with the scammer calls you claiming to be an attorney to help you get back the money that was taken from you, and all you have to do is give them a three thousand dollar retainer and they'll take on your case.

Being Skeptical of Offers

SPEAKER_01 12:38

Please wire that to this a fund now, if you would. So they're getting you again. That's crazy. That's crazy. So I mean, and so these things are out there, they're all over the place.

SPEAKER_02 12:49

And here's the trick be so skeptical of everything. Really. Just ev trust that everything is a lie. If it if you didn't if you didn't start the transaction, if you didn't initiate the call, then figure if they're contacting you, it's a scam. And remember, your computer is not going to send you a notice that it has been infected by a virus.

SPEAKER_01 13:18

I like what you said. So I wouldn't trust any third party ever. When it comes to investing, we've talked about this, but I guess we can never say it too many times. If it sounds too good to be true, guess what?

SPEAKER_02 13:31

It's definitely too good to do.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

And then I here's the other thing. I would always make any money transfer that has to be confirmed with your voice. Now, that doesn't necessarily save you because we talked about sort of voice cloning, but it will help in most occasions, right? So the money can't be moved without you telling them that it is actually you. But I mean, this is something next year it'll be a whole different set of they update the daily.

SPEAKER_02 13:56

They're very they're very creative. Indeed. But that's I mean, have d have you ever watched these scam movies, you know, going back to the like the sting, even with Robert Redford or I'm more of a Glengarry Glenn Ross guy myself. Well, that was but that wasn't really a scam. Sure, they're selling it's phony real estate.

SPEAKER_01 14:14

Yeah, okay, the sting, yes, that that was a long con.

SPEAKER_02 14:17

And they're very they're very creative. They are and if the movies can do it, then the con artists can do it.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

I remember the first time I saw the sting. I was like, what? What just happened? They just took that guy's money. It was shocking to me. But yeah.

SPEAKER_02 14:30

So And they're trying to take yours, so you need to be vigilant and don't do anything, as Tom said on a whim, and be distrustful of anyone contacting you for any financial reason. Period.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

I think that's excellent. Excellent advice. Well, and one thing is we need more of your questions. We've been slowing down here a little bit, so my war on trees has uh been reduced, plus the trees. Well, because the trees attacked your house.

SPEAKER_02 15:04

Teach you to the trees, man.

SPEAKER_01 15:06

And then the copier broke down. I think that has something to do with the war on trees. This is all a conspiracy, but it's not.

SPEAKER_02 15:12

Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Think about the trees. What happens when trees and wind come together in a uh residential area? Your power lines are like on poles, right? Yes. As are your internet connections. Uh-oh. The trees have now figured out a way, when it gets windy, to connect with the internet, get into your printer, and stop you from killing trees. Wow, there is No, I think it's just self-defense.

SPEAKER_01 15:37

Self-defense. All right. So send us more questions. We we could use a talkingRailMoney.com.

SPEAKER_02 15:43

Oh, and by the way, now you can call us 247 and uh get your question on the show at 855-935-talk. 855-935-8255. Call that number anytime.

SPEAKER_01 15:57

Have we decided have we divvied it up? Are you gonna do like late night Eastern time? I mean, how we am I doing early? How we're doing it.

Listener Questions and Portfolio Advice

SPEAKER_02 16:06

We're we're we're gonna have time. So we no, we're not answering the phone. Oh, okay. I was just gonna write the phone. AI is answering the phone. No, it's actually me, my voice, but it's voice removing.

SPEAKER_01 16:18

Hey, that's talking real money.

SPEAKER_02 16:20

No, that's the trees.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

That's the trees. All right. From Cedro Woolley, Tim writes us Hey, Don and Tom, I'm retired and would like to set up a portfolio that is 50% short-term fixed income and 50% global equity with a good mix of small cap value, international emerging markets that you like to recommend. That's good. For the equity side, I'd like it to be 55% U.S. and 45% international. AVGE is more like a 70-30 split, AVGE being the Avantis Global Equity Fund. AVGV has a bit more international, but still under 40% seems to be overweighted on international small cap value. And AVNM, heavy on emerging markets. I I don't even think I which I'd have to look at A V.

SPEAKER_02 17:06

A V N M? That's what he says. Is there a single being stumped by an Avantis fund? A V I'm looking it up. A V N M.

SPEAKER_01 17:15

But he says, is there a single fund that can be a good one?

SPEAKER_02 17:17

Oh, that's their all international market. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

So that's the fund. Is there a fund that's closer to a well-balanced 5545 or would be a good set of ETFs to get to? Also on the fixed income, would it be a good mix of B and D and a money market C D, or is there a single fund for how to do that? No, no, no. No. So no, his real question is how do I get on the U.S. to international side to 55% U.S. and 45% international in one fund? I don't know how.

SPEAKER_02 17:46

I did you can't. You can't. You're just going to need to add a little smidge. If you're using a Bontas, you add a little smidge of AVNM, which by the way, which by the way, is 60% large companies. So, I mean, it's uh 30% emerging markets, really. Wow.

SPEAKER_01 18:06

That's pretty hefty on emerging markets there.

SPEAKER_02 18:09

They had a lot of emerging, 20, yeah, 28, 29 percent. No, actually 30 percent.

SPEAKER_01 18:14

So if you bought A V G E, for example, and then you added in A, V, and M. Yeah, to to get you to that ratio. You could do it. It would work.

SPEAKER_02 18:24

So 10% A, V, and M, and you pretty much got there.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Then you get to this aspect of uh sort of the bucket for paying yourself, because B and D should be your long-term uh if you're gonna do one fund, your long-term fixed income. It it's good, it's diversified, it's low cost, and it's I hate to use the word conservative, but it you know it has a lot of it.

SPEAKER_02 18:48

Because it's all the bonds.

SPEAKER_01 18:49

Yeah. Um but if you're trying to replace your income, then you're gonna want a bucket that has the money markets or the CDs that come up that can give you the money when you need it. Um and we just got criticized at retirement for not mentioning this there. We didn't mention everything by retirement. We'd we'd do a lot in one day, but we don't get to every topic. But that's how I would look at it. I have my portfolio, and then maybe each year peel off what I need. So the other part would be the money market or the C D, which Don does as well. You ladder those CDs to provide income for your I have both.

SPEAKER_02 19:22

I have both. I have B and D, I have C D ladder, um, I've got high yield savings.

unknown 19:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:28

So I've got I've got all of those vehicles. Yep. Uh and then from Friday Harbor, beautiful Friday Harbor, Washington, Teresa writes Generally speaking, if you invest$100,000 into a mutual fund and it increases by$10,000, sounds like a 10% increase, should you take the$10K out of the mutual fund and leave the rest or run the risk of losing it if the fund goes down? In other words, should you take your winnings off the table when the fund goes up 10%? No, this is not gambling.

Understanding Investment Strategies

SPEAKER_02 20:04

This is you're not in Vegas. This is where we start getting into the we're looking at investing all wrong. Investing is buying companies and letting them grow through good times and bad. You're just buying them in aggregate. You're buying a lot of them. You don't if you bought yes, if you bought one stock and you had a big run-up, maybe you just got lucky. Uh and it's kind of like because it is like gambling, buying one stock, that might be a different story. But if you're broadly investing, no, you don't take your winnings off the table, or how can your winnings grow on top of your winnings? In other words, compound returns.

SPEAKER_01 20:43

Now, the only exception to that, and that's total agreement, if you were rebalancing your account, and for example, you had 100,000 in stocks and they went to 110,000, and that went up far more than your bonds, for example, that went from 100,000 to 101,000. Then at the end of the year, you're going to be selling the thing that went up faster and putting it back into the other one to get the ratio set again. That you could do. But it has nothing to do with the fact that you're sort of taking your winnings off the table. I made the money setting it aside, unless, for example, as we just mentioned, you're filling your other bucket of retirement income or something like that. But otherwise, no, you'd be those.

SPEAKER_02 21:23

Gambling on crypto, yes. Take your winnings off the table when it goes up.

SPEAKER_01 21:27

Nice leverage ETF, et cetera, et cetera. Um private equity, no, kidding. Um private credit, kidding again. So no, though that would be you wouldn't be selling out of that just because it went up.

SPEAKER_02 21:38

No, no. Really, we have to change our mindset. The kind of investing that we talk about on this show, we don't recommend individual stocks. We don't recommend commodities, we don't recommend speculative vehicles. So, therefore, everything we discuss, everything we suggest is an investment, not a speculation. It is only when you're gambling that the conventional wisdom is to take some winnings off the table. We believe that what we're suggesting you do is not gambling, it is putting your money into things that have shown the propensity to become more valuable over time, and that is companies, businesses. Businesses have grown for as long as we've been tracking businesses.

SPEAKER_01 22:29

Not all of them, but businesses.

SPEAKER_02 22:30

And again, in aggregate.

SPEAKER_01 22:32

Yeah, in aggregate in aggregate. Good word.

SPEAKER_02 22:34

Okay, maybe I should have said better better better uh terminologies. Economies. The global economy. And and this is a fact, by the way. This was uh this was uh uh a study done by a Scottish professor uh who found that the global economy, based on his research, has grown steadily, not every year, steadily, decade after decade, for two thousand years.

SPEAKER_01 22:59

Yeah, and it has its pretty good track record. It has its tough years, right? Nineteen fifteen or nineteen forty-three or dark ages. Those referred to world wars. But yes, okay, the dark ages.

SPEAKER_02 23:12

No, no, no, I'm talking about the the dark ages, like eight hundred to Yeah, I just don't know how many years on that because you know the funny thing about the dark ages is that they only negatively impacted the European economy and uh doing it. Asian economies and Middle Eastern economies were growing. Not American, there was no economy here.

SPEAKER_01 23:32

Well, there was because there's Native Americans.

SPEAKER_02 23:34

Okay. You did what you had one.

SPEAKER_01 23:35

They were fishing out salmon, they were doing all kinds of good stuff.

SPEAKER_02 23:38

So not a you know, there's no monetary GDP, no trading.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

Uh but back to the question. Yes, if you're at the roulette wheel and it spins your way three times in a row, take your winnings off the table. No, if you're invested for the long haul, that's gonna ride.

SPEAKER_02 23:54

855-935-Talk is just one of the ways now. You can call and ask your questions. You can also go to talkingreal money dot com. You can go to talkingreal money.com, find the contact form, and you can type questions helping Tom kill more trees, or you can speak them, and I'll put them on the Friday podcast without a single tree harmed in the making of this program. In addition, a lot of people we've we've done this for 15 years. A lot of you you're do-it-yourselfers. We get that. But everybody from time to time needs a little help from their friends, and uh you want to make sure your friends aren't gonna try and sell you a commissioned product. And that's where your friends at our company, Apello Wealth, actually come in handy. Because we don't sell commission products ever.

SPEAKER_01 24:42

Everybody needs an advisor sometime No, just putting that out there. So get some help. Maybe I should get more help.

SPEAKER_02 24:51

Yeah, a little bit. Um you go to talkingRealMoney.com and click on the meet and advisor form. Now you can meet with an advisor for you know up to an hour maybe. Don't take advantage of it. They're doing this.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

They will do the analysis though for you that people really like looking at the other.

SPEAKER_02 25:04

Yeah, they're doing a pro bono.

SPEAKER_01 25:05

That's free.

Closing Thoughts and Resources

SPEAKER_02 25:06

That means free in Latin. And uh also they're not going to try to, you know, pressure you into becoming a client. Of course, if you want to be a client, we're not gonna say no. We like clients. But we don't make you become one. We don't need to. They're coming, we we're getting a lot of them anyway, right? Yep. Okay. Thanks for being a part of the podcast. Remember, we're here five days a week talking about money, and that's because the show is called Talking Real Money.

SPEAKER_00 25:36

The opinions and views expressed on this podcast were current on the date recorded. Opinions, estimates, forecasts, and statements of financial market trends that are based on current market conditions constitute our judgment and are subject to change without notice, including any forward-looking estimates or statements which are based on certain expectations and assumptions. Although information and opinions given have been obtained from or based on sources believed to be reliable, no warranty or representation is made as to their correctness, completeness, or accuracy. Information presented on the podcast is not personalized investment advice from Opello Wealth. The views and strategies described may not be suitable for everyone. This podcast does not identify all the risks, direct or indirect or other considerations which might be material to you when entering any financial transaction. Past performance does not guarantee feature results, and profitable results cannot be guaranteed. We hope you realize that the information provided on Talking Real Money is for informational, educational, and hopefully enjoyable purposes only. The podcast is not trying to get you to buy or sell any financial products or securities. Instead, the program is provided as a public service by Apello Wealth, a fee-only registered investment advisor. Please see Appello Wealth's ADB Part 2A on our website for information regarding Appello's fees and services. Apello Capital, LLC DBA Appello Wealth, is an investment advisory firm registered with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm only transacts business in the states where it is properly registered or excluded or exempt from registration requirements. Registration with the SEC or any state securities authority does not imply a certain level of skill or training. Apello does not provide tax or legal advice, and nothing either stated or implied here should be inferred as providing such advice. Thanks for listening, and please visit talkingrealmoney.com for more information and important disclosure related to performance of any specific index or fund quoted in this podcast. And the lawyers get richer.