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Alien or Prisoner of Society? How to Avoid Getting Scammed.

Why unboxing matters.

Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
4 min readJun 24, 2022
Photo courtesy of author

He carefully placed his debit card and handwritten note with his PIN in an envelope and sealed it. My retired neighbor, Bert, from four houses away was always extra cautious. He had heard about the work of scammers from his sister, who used to work in the bank. “Trust nobody when it comes to your savings,” she was continually telling him.

Bert had received a phone call from the bank fifteen minutes earlier. The bank let him know that his card was “compromised” that morning. But there was “nothing to worry about.” The Senior Service Center would send someone over to his home to pick up his debit card, retrieve the PIN, and solve the issue.

You can guess where this is going. A person arrived, collected the card, and assured Bert that the bank would send him a new card soon.

“The new card and PIN will be sent separately for security reasons.” An extra line for authenticity or a final touch of cruelty?

Thirty minutes later, Bert’s account was drained at the ATM a few blocks away.

What’s perhaps worse is that Bert felt embarrassed and humiliated. His sister warned him so many times. “Why didn’t he listen?” she complained to me when I heard the story. “He’s so upset and angry with…

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Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD
Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Written by Erik P.M. Vermeulen, PhD

Where Gen X memories meet today’s struggles.

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