Scammers Will Say Absolutely Anything (part 3 of a series)

So here in the third in our series about scammers targeting our seniors, I am going to give you some of the lines they have used. Believe me, they will say anything. They have honed their skills in sensing what will motivate (or overwhelm, or frighten) their target, and they will push it all the way to get what they want.

Let’s say you are a senior citizen, born in an time when the phone rang, it was someone you knew or at least someone you could trust. When someone identifies themselves as a police officer, you believe them. When someone says they are in trouble, you believe them. Big. Mistake.

The intro is what keeps you, the potential victim, on the line. They know they have to either trigger your interest or sound official enough that they will be scared to hang up. So they have, among other things, impersonated a radio personality, claimed that they were from the IRS, that they are helping the FBI, that they are collecting on a debt that you owe, that they are from  Western Union and they have money for you, that they are a police detective, or even that they are calling from CVS or Walmart!

After they have found the key to your attention, they continue talking to reel you in. And the goal, always, is to get access to your bank account.

Maybe they tell you that your child or grandchild is in trouble and needs you to wire them some money. Or that you have won a large amount of money from a sweepstakes or a foreign lottery (congratulations!) but they need you to send them some money for shipping expenses or to pay the taxes on your prize.

If you are still tracking with them, they set the hook. Wire them the money, but, oh, by the way, let’s not tell your family about your good fortune, let’s just surprise them when you show up with all that cash! In fact, keep it from your friends, too. Won’t it be fun when you surprise them? Think of all the good you can do with the money! You could bring your wife home from the nursing home and hire private duty nurses. You could fund the new wing on your church. You could get out of debt, or…..  you get the idea.

In the next article, I will cover some of what might happen once a senior starts sending them money. If you know someone who might be vulnerable to scammers, sign up for my mailing list and I will email you a copy of  “8 Ways to Prevent someone you know from Being Scammed”.

Be safe out there!

5 Warning Signs that Your Elderly Parent Might be the Victim of a Scam (part 2 of a series)

It is an all too familiar story. A family member discovers that mom or dad has given a bunch of money to a virtual stranger. Sometimes it is caught in the beginning stages and sometimes their money is already all gone. It can happen to anyone, even those who were cautious and thrifty all their lives.

If you want to learn some ways to prevent it before it happens, sign up here for my mailing list and I will email you a copy of  “8 Ways to Prevent your Elderly Parents from Being Scammed”.

For the child of an elderly parent who is still living alone, here are some warning signs to watch for.

1. Increase in mail delivery to their address. Seniors who begin answering surveys and responding to sweepstakes notifications will rapidly be added to other lists as their name is sold from one scammer to another. I know of one case where the mail no longer fits in the mailbox so it has to be brought to the door in a box every day. Watch for piles of “junk” mail and a corresponding preoccupation with it.

2. Phone calls from new “friends” that absorb a lot of time. Some scammers take advantage of the elderly who live alone by talking to them several times a day, getting to know them, making them feel special and pretending to be their friend.

3. Changes in behavior. If your senior parent is suddenly too “busy” to visit or go out to eat when they used to love to do it, they may be waiting for a phone call or a promised “visit” from a scammer.

4. Unusually secretive or defensive attitudes. Scammers will sometimes urge your loved one “not to tell” their family, to “surprise” them with all the money that they are going to win. In addition, once some people realize that they have been played, they are ashamed and will go to great lengths to hide it from their family.

5. Financial clues. Maybe there is unusual activity in their bank account that they cannot explain. Or they stop paying their bills regularly. Or their valuables begin disappearing. Any of these can be a warning sign.

This FBI page explains why seniors are so often the target of fraud schemes.

If you suspect your loved one is participating, willingly or unwillingly, and you have a good relationship with them, talk to them about it. Ask questions and listen, and tell them calmly why you believe this person does not have their best interest at heart. If they are determined to ignore your advice and are still capable of running their own affairs, there may not be much you can do to stop them. But you can educate yourself and watch for further opportunities to be an influence.

Next post: the lengths to which the fraudsters will go to get senior’s money.

Help! My Elderly Parent is Being Scammed! (part 1 of a series)

Well, not actually mine, but I recently read an article about scammers from Jamaica who are taking hundreds of millions of dollars from the elderly.

“Jamaican con artists are defrauding mostly elderly targets by selling them a bogus dream. Millions of dollars, new cars and homes won in lotteries and sweepstakes the seniors never entered, according to victims and law enforcement officials.”

When I was a hospice chaplain, I worked with lots of elderly patients. Many of them were lonely. Many of them were struggling with the emotional aspects of end-of-life issues, and many were dealing with cognitive decline. You put these together and you have someone who has a target on their back. Someone calls who is friendly, takes an interest in them, learns the names of their children, gives them a glowing picture of their future, begins calling several times a day, earns their trust, and the rest is history. They may even begin threatening and using fear, once the bond has been formed. Whatever it takes to gain continued access to the victim’s bank account.

The question of “When do I begin participating in my aging parent’s financial decisions?” ranks right up there with “When do I take away my elderly parent’s keys?” They are, after all, our parents, and stepping in and possibly making them angry is not something any loving child looks forward to. The problem is, if you wait until the catastrophic car accident or the bank account is empty, it is too late.

I would like to suggest that the time to have the discussion is long before it is needed. Just like talking to your kids about drugs before they hit adolescence and rebellion, initiating a conversation with a parent that covers the possibilities and “what-if’s” is much better done before mental decline even begins. The talk might include a family history session including questions about how various relatives handled aging, what they do or do not want to happen to them, reading an article such as the one about the Jamaican scam artists and discussing ways to avoid those issues, etc. In other words, a plan.

No, it won’t make mom or dad more open to handing over the checkbook if dementia leads to paranoia, but if I know that it was what they wanted, it might make it easier to handle their anger and confusion when I have to do it.

Interested in learning about things you can do now to make it less likely that your parent will become a victim of fraud? Sign up here for my mailing list and I will send you “8 Ways to Prevent your Elderly Parents from Being Scammed”.

Have your parents been victims? I would like to hear about it.

Solutions When You Are Always Cold

One of the comments I hear a lot from people who order a Sleepy Sleeve for themselves or for their favorite patient is that they are “always cold.”

There can be a lot of reasons for this. When you are sick, you can feel cold even when your body temperature is higher than normal–chills with a fever. Various medications can cause you to feel cold, even if your body temp doesn’t change–blood thinners after surgery, for example. Chemotherapy patients often report an inability to stay warm as well. And when you are sick in bed all day, your large muscles are not producing as much heat as when moving around.

So what can be done about it?

Pile on the blankets or sweaters, wear fuzzy socks, drink hot liquids….all are helpful, but some options are better than others. (Read one customers comparison between a Snuggie and a Sleeve)

Our Sleepy Sleeve is made of a double layer of polar fleece, which will warm you or your patient up within minutes! In fact, we call it the “Ahhhh Factor”. Put it on and….wait for it…the exhale, the contented facial expression, the “Ahhhhhh!” And it is easier to put on than a sweater, which if you’ve just had surgery is a definite plus.

Sleeves cover the shoulders, neck, arms and hands, so tucking the covers up to the chin is no longer necessary–your arms and hands will be free to read or change the channel. You won’t know what you did without it, in fact, we have had more than one customer purchase another Sleeve to wear while the first one is in the laundry!

Let us help you change “always cold” to toasty warm!

5,4,3,2,1….

“Most entrepreneurs do not start their business because they want to run a sales organization” (Carolyn Herfurth). In fact, most of us get all excited about the creativity, the design, the helping people, the freedom…then run head on into the reality that “Oh, I have to find someone to buy this from me.”

Selling has been my hardest area. Marketing, not much better. I can find all kinds of things to do to avoid it and reasons why it will have to be tomorrow or next week. But without it, I am just a barn full of inventory!

I had an aha today while listening to a presentation online today from the above Carolyn Herfurth on “The Art and Soul of Successful Selling”. Now, I believe in my Sleeves. I have seen the comfort they bring to people and heard their responses to them. But knowing they would like them if they tried them and actually getting them to try on something they have never seen before are two different things. And I realized that my biggest fear is that they are not as good as I think they are.

You can see it on Shark Tank all the time. A person or couple have come up with this (to them) fabulous idea, but few other people see it that way. And maybe that is something you won’t know until you step into the tank or beat the proverbial bushes.

And now that the barn is done, the house is at least 75% settled and I have cleaned out and sorted my computer files and email box, I have no other excuses. So I guess we will find out!

Back to Business

In case you are wondering if I forgot that this is supposed to be a blog about starting/running a business, this one is for you! Everything we have done this last year has been about business, but indirectly. We have fixed up our house, sold it, said goodbye to 19 years in Pennsylvania and moved to TN. Once we arrived here, we have built a barn for inventory storage and workshop space.

And now…back to business.

On the side, while my Sleeves were an hour away in a storage unit, I have been developing a website to sell shell crafts that my aunt and I make with mostly Sanibel Island shells. It has brought back to me all the brain stretching that takes place when starting a business.

I decided to try building a WordPress website using a purchased ecommerce theme, kinda like a template that is already made for you and then you add your own images (see, I have been affected. Normally I would use the word “photos” but after working with the site for a couple weeks, I almost automatically said “images”) and content.

I chose the theme called “estore” from elegent themes. I had already purchased the elegant theme package because I plan to transfer my You’re Getting Warmer website to their “boutique” theme. And you pay $39 a year and have access to several dozen of their themes and can use as many of them as you want. So it didn’t cost me anything more to use it.

Here is a link to the estore theme so you can see what it looks like. It will open in a new window so you can come back here after you look at it. http://www.elegantthemes.com/gallery/estore/  

Then I had to figure out what to do with hosting. That is the company that you pay to “host” your website, to make it visible on the web. It is usually $100-200 per year, depending on your plan and how you pay. I use DreamHost, which was recommended to me by a techie friend when I started You’re Getting Warmer. As I researched, I discovered that my current plan with DreamHost supports numerous websites, so adding this new one didn’t cost me anything more than I was already paying…nice!

So it is not finished, and if you compare it from day to day, you will see changes and things that need fixing, but if you want a sneak peek, you can go to www.lowtidetreasure and check it out. Make sure and click on all the little thumbnails and links so you can see what it does! I am just installing a shopping cart, and it has messed with some of my backgrounds and colors, but in time I will get it all tweaked back the way I want it.

Working with this theme has taken me dozens of hours. Like learning a totally new language–which it is because I have never done anything like it before. I am hoping that now the changes that I make to You’re Getting Warmer will be easier because I understand more how WordPress works.

Just when I think I am on the home stretch, I install the shopping cart and find that there are probably hours of figuring out how to tweak it for what I need. And that I need a “child theme” to save the changes I have made to the code to customize the theme, and that I need to have a way to backup the database and files in case DreamHost would have a catastrophic failure. So back to the world of ftp, css and gb’s I go, armed only with determination and stubbornness! I will keep you posted….

Leaving you with a photo of one of our shell fragment sculptures that Cody took using his incredible light painting process. Great to have a photographer in the family!

From Bolt to Hat

Some of the fleece we use is made in China and some in Taiwan. I order it from one of two wholesalers here in the US, and it arrives at my manufacturer in large rolls of around 60 yards each.

This is a partial roll of fleece. A full one is larger around.

At the manufacturer, the roll is laid out on a long table and the pieces of each sleeve are cut out to be sewed. This leaves a lot of scraps. Some long strips, some blocks, some triangles and some a mix. I have asked them to save all those scraps for me, so I bring home at least 12 bags of scraps every time I place an order. Big bags! Huge trash can bags!

 

Then I sort them by size, shape, color, and offer them for sale to crafters and for free to organizations and groups like schools that will use them to make items for shelters, etc.

 

Some scraps went to an assisted living in November, and I just heard back from them.

 

“I just wanted to let you know that we made the scarves at the assisted living home and it was a big success.

“With your donation of the fleece strips and small pieces (and a piece of fleece that I purchased for $1 at the local thrift store) we created 35 scarves. And this week with the donation of some new fleece blankets (from an embroidery store, with corners cut out from their embroidery opps) and your strips we are making 30 hats. The hats and the scarves will be donated to a local food bank called FISH.

“The residents want to do this again.  They enjoyed doing something for others. 
I have contacted other agencies to see what we can do for them and so far the local hospital’s oncology department would like scarves for their patients too. 

“Thank you very much for your donations, it made many residents at the home feel useful and will keep many children warm!  Hopefully we can do more in the future.”

 

It really feels good to be saving the scraps from the landfill, giving the residents something to do that they enjoy and is fulfilling to them and keeping someone warm at the same time! Yes, it takes a little bit of extra time, but it is worth it! What could you do today that could help someone else?

 

 

One of Those Days

Just so you know that things don’t always go well when you are starting a business…this evening has been one mess-up after another!

It started with an order for some monogrammed Sleepy Sleeves. No problem. Pull out my machine that does the monogramming, whip out the two Sleeves. Start packing the box. Oh no! I switched the names–the Small Sleeve had the name that was supposed to go on the M/L Sleeve. So how can I fix this? I tried to take the monogramming out, but it is so tightly stitched it can’t be done without damaging the fleece. So I decide to bring the label from the other side over and cover the old monogram then put the right name where the old label used to be. Perfect! It worked great with one Sleeve but I noticed as I was beginning to monogram the second one, a flaw in the construction of the Sleeve that I hadn’t noticed before. Great. Go get another one.

Prep, monogram, trim…Oh no, not again. There is a spot on the fabric–and a piece of tape from the manufacturer so I would know it was there–but why is it in the box with the regulars? I tried some spot remover that has worked on some of the Sleeves, but the spot is not coming out. OK. Again.

Grab another Sleeve, prep, monogram…I noticed on the last letter that the machine sounded different and slowed down. What is that all about? As I pulled it out from under the machine foot, I discovered that a section of the cuff had been doubled over and got caught up and sewed into the monogram, which meant that not only would I have to start over, but I couldn’t even cut it apart without damaging it!

Attempt #4: Back up to get the fourth Sleeve, and finally we have a winner! No stains, no defects, whew! Quick, get it in the box before something else happens to it.

I think I need to go to bed…

You’re Getting Warmer Fleeces a School!

I could tell you the story, but I think I will let Mrs. Quinn do it. (She gave me permission to post this)

The 3rd and 4th Grade Sewing News

“The students have been working on a service project in sewing this trimester. We are making quilts for the cats and dogs in the Hillside SPCA. The fabric we are using is fleece and was donated by a local business called “You’re Getting Warmer”.

“You’re Getting Warmer” is owned by Linda McCabe and is located in Reading. She makes a very nice toasty warm product that is like a shrug, but only has the sleeves. (I bought one and it is wonderful for keeping warm when reading in bed!)

A Sleeve is the shortest distance between chilly and toasty!

Mrs. McCabe has the cuttings returned to her from the factory so that they don’t end up in the landfill. She was selling bags of fleece cuttings and scraps on Craig’s List in order to recycle them. Around the same time, I saw the article about the Hillside SPCA needing blankets for the animals, and it seemed to be a good project for the students. Their sewing skills had progressed very well to the point that they could make a quality quilt.

Our sewing classes needed fabric, so I emailed her to buy some. I told her about the school, and then explained what we wanted to make for the animal shelter. She checked us out online and really liked what we do. When I went to pick up the fabric, she decided to donate the cuttings to us instead. She gave us 7 giant bags of cuttings! (They really were giant bags! My basement breathed a huge sigh of relief when they were gone)

The students are making very good use of them. Ms. Bassler’s class is making quilts out of brown and tan cuttings, and Mrs. Shanoskie’s class is using the purple and lavender fabric. The quilting projects should wrap up by the 9th of December. We also have something called “Bus Stop Sewing”. It is comprised of students that are waiting for their bus in the afternoon and using the cuttings from Mrs. McCabe, they make small, quick projects during their 15-20 minutes of waiting.

I have really enjoyed sewing with your child this trimester! I hope we get to sew together again. There will be an after school sewing club when we come back from Christmas break, so keep an eye for the information.

Thank you, and enjoy your Thanksgiving!”

Mrs. Quinn

Gi l l i n g h a m   C H A R T E R S C H O O L

 915 Howard Av e P o t t s v i l l e , P a 1 7 9 0 1

 

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Bookworm Sleeve - Cold Relief You Wear!

How cool is that? I am planning to get some photos of the children in the next few weeks and will post them. (The photos in this post are for illustration only and are not related to Gillingham Charter School.)

Oh, and if you have missed it, our most popular blog post ever was the alligator steak demo I posted last Thanksgiving. Our ‘gators are soaking in their swamp, getting ready for the big feast tomorrow! Hope that whatever you have to eat, you eat it with those you love.

Thankful for my blessings,

Linda McCabe–You’re Getting Warmer

Drinking from a firehose

The first year of being a full-time entrepreneur was spent fighting to get the information I needed. I think I probably wore Google out, looking for tidbits and clues to the answers I sought. That was then.

NOW, I feel like I am drinking from a firehose! I discovered www.savorthesuccess.com, where entrepreneurial women from all over come to ask questions, answer questions, support and encourage in all manner of businesses, ongoing and startups. There is so much support and so many resources that I never even knew existed! Have a question? Post it in one of the cafe’s and you will get an answer from (usually) several women who have been there and figured it out. Need a resource? Need a coach? Need a professional writer? Whatever you need, you can either find it there or find someone who can help you find it. I have been blown away! (Example: Sarah Shaw has taught me more about moving from idea to retail than I ever thought possible. In this blog post she talks about the advantages of bootstrapping–starting a business from scratch. Her blog and her phone seminars are amazing. http://theentreprenettegazette.com/2011/11/17/bootstrap-or-bust/)

The biggest problem has been information overload. I have been in on 10-12 teleseminars, gone to NYC for a selling training event, spent dozens of hours reading and processing, and sometimes it is overwhelming. But in a welcome sort of way.

Fear is a big problem in starting a new business, but sometimes the fear is just a result of lack of knowledge. And that kind of fear can be solved by information. Knowing what to do and how to do it gives a sense of freedom and triumph! And then there is the fear that comes from self-doubt and internal messages–something different altogether. That can take a little longer…

So that is what I have been up to. I am currently trying to figure out what company to use to keep track of my customers/potential customers, starting with the hospital gift shops. And whether to switch to Google Mail from my current Yahoo account. It is frustrating that you have to make a decision before you really know how it will play out…but I guess that is like life. We don’t totally know how any of our choices will play out before we make them.

So what in your life would you like to change? What resources do you need to do it? Resources are out there, and sometimes you just have to ask the right person or click the right link to find them. Don’t hesitate to ask–life is short. Live it!