Sally wasn’t the most likely person to go on a safari. A rail-thin homemaker with bright red Lucille Ball hair and a bad habit of chain smoking which had to contribute to her skinny physique, she never really consciously planned to take a life-altering trip. In fact, she never even left her house when she went on a safari. And, it was only when her daughter called that her world collapsed around her. Her hunting trips were going to cost her, and her newly retired, ununspecting husband, the house she rarely ventured out of.

It had all been so simple once she got over her fear of the cursor blinking back at her. The laptop had been a present from her two kids and it terrified her. Then, with a little tech help from her coffee klatch neighbors, the wonders of online shopping blossomed right before her eyes. The cute little contraption named for a rodent was like a magic wand. Soon, she and the UPS driver were best buddies. She invited the delivery lady to her coffee group but the young lady in brown was way too busy to stop. Beneath her smile lurked the deer-in-the-headlights terror of not meeting her package to stop numbers and that could mean she would lose her job. Still, Sally was her favorite stop; ever day seemed to be Christmas for her I Love Lucy friend.

The daughter didn’t realize what she and her brother’s birthday present had done to the Moms until a friend at the bank gave her a heads up. The bank was going to take her parents’ home for non-payment. Distraught, she had to loot her 401k in order to save the house she had grown up in. It ended well because she had savings and the house, purchased back when homes were going for five digit prices but continuously under a second mortgage, was saved.

This introduction to new age shopping is a true story, names change and so forth. Just a glance at the AARP Bullletin’s vol. 55 no.1 issue offers corroboration and a sober reminder that along with the convenience of shopping from your recliner via your computer mouse comes an inherent danger. AARP’s “Most Wanted List” details six criminals busted for preying on seniors. It isn’t just the internet. Phone scams abound as well. I can’t repeat the entire article here, of course, but everyone should find a copy. I just chuckled because I was going to add “you can probably find it at AARP.com online,” which would have been in bad taste.

Not surprisingly, Texas leads the way in jail time. Of the six criminals apprehended, by far the biggest sentence was handed down by a Texan judge to a man who convinced 9 elderly ladies, two of them with dementia, to “liquidate their assets and make advancements through him. In fact, he used their retirement nest eggs for his own personal expenses. In September (2013) he was sentenced to 40 years in Texas state prison after pleading guilty to charges of theft and money laundering.” Jail terms handed out to similar felons lucky enough to be busted in other states were around two to fifteen years.

The sharks never sleep. The Target corporation just announced that their network had been hit and the total compromised credit cards now exceeded 70,000. I believe that this is just the tip of an ice berg that our ship of state is steaming toward at full force. Online gambling had to be shut down a few years back and, refurbished, it, too, has reached epidemic proportions. Simply said, the bad guys and gals out there are keeping a step ahead of the game. If you get a call that sounds too good to be true the old adage applies; it usually isn’t. Police monitoring such devious tactics counsel to never sent money up front, even if the caller tells you that they are representing a relative who has hit with bad times abroad.

I began with the “mouse” metaphor for a reason. For one, it’s a hook to get your attention. Secondly, it is generally a tactic that nefarious marketers and scam artists use. Curiosity piqued, stop and take a deep breath and think about what you’re being asked to do. Sally’s online purchasing addiction, for I truly believe it was that, wasn’t illegal like the AARP wanted list and the “sharks” who constantly body surf on the internet waves. She wasn’t targeted by QVC and other online shopping malls. They offered a product for a price. Still, she almost lost their home because she was susceptible to the flickering tube and the boredom that came with the hours left after her house was cleaned and her husband fed. In a way her plight was almost more insidious.

Jerry Tuck is a retired San Andreas resident and an indie author. Contact him at olwhofan@aol.com or use the Contact Form.