November 1, 2024
From Frank...
Early this morning, my oldest sister sent an alarming text to me and our five other sisters. She had been scammed out of $12,000. My sister was embarrassed that she was gullible and at 71, she feels especially vulnerable because she hasn’t and doesn’t feel like she can keep up with technology that makes scams seems so plausible.
The issue of scams was something that our board of directors discussed as an important, emerging issue at our most recent board meeting. We have written resources and flyers that we distribute at public events, but we’re going to make those available on our resources page of our website within a few weeks as well. To that end, if you know of specific resources and want those included, please send me an email.
Periodically over the next few months, we’ll include some of these resources and announcements about the latest scams here in our newsletter. To get us started, however, I’m sharing the following tips from the National Council on Aging:
1. Never give your credit card, banking, Social Security, Medicare, or other personal information over the phone unless you initiated the call.
2. Be aware that you are at risk from strangers—and from those closest to you.
3. Don’t isolate yourself—stay involved!
4. Tell solicitors: “I never buy from (or give to) anyone who calls or visits me unannounced. Send me something in writing.”
5. Shred all receipts with your credit card number.
6. Sign up for the “Do Not Call” list and take yourself off multiple mailing lists.
7. Use direct deposit for benefit checks to prevent checks from being stolen from the mailbox.
8. Be skeptical of all unsolicited offers and thoroughly do your research.
AARP also has a scam hotline that you can call Monday through Friday, from 8:00 am until 9:00 pm ET if you suspect a scam or even just have a question. That number to call is 877-908-3360. You can also sign up for bi-weekly alerts from AARP by clicking here. The DC Government has an online tracking system that shows recent complaints that they have received recently. You can view the tracker here and also submit a complaint, if you’ve been a victim of a scam.
The Federal Trade Commission estimates that nearly 15 million people in the U.S. are victims of identity theft each year and in 2023 approximately 10 billion dollars was reported as being lost in scams. That’s a 14% increase from 2022.
Let’s commit to working together as a community to ensure our safety.
— Frank Finamore, Executive Director
P.S. On Sunday, November 3rd we set our clocks back one hour at 2:00 am. I try to change my clocks before I go to bed on Saturday night, but usually end up changing them sometime on Sunday morning.
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