"Purported Microsoft employees tried to get control of my computer by claiming it was about to self-destruct. (My husband almost fell for that one.) I got numerous realistic-sounding robocalls asking for donations to charities that probably don't exist. Women with lovely telephone voices claimed to have discovered my 2009 book of poems and told me their companies could make it a big commercial success."
"The worst consequence, though, is something more serious: the loss of social trust. I'm now afraid to put checks in the mail and try when I can to disguise them as birthday cards. I never donate over the phone. I don't participate in telephone polls. I used to rather enjoy that, but now I just wonder who's asking and what nefarious schemes they could be up to."
An individual experienced a surge of scams over about a year, including a mailed check stolen and "checkwashed," tech-support imposters, realistic robocalls soliciting donations, false offers to commercialize a book, and a PayPal-like bitcoin phishing attempt. The checkwashing required closing and reopening a bank account, months of resolution, and multiple in-person bank visits. The scams prompted defensive behaviors: avoiding mailing checks, disguising payments as cards, refusing phone donations, and skipping telephone polls. Those behavioral changes produced increasing suspicion and a marked loss of social trust, creating emotional distress and a diminished willingness to engage with strangers.
Read at The Nation
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