By TR Robertson
The Vista Council Chamber at Vista Civic Center was filled on Thursday with people interested in hearing from various speakers discuss the growing problem of fraud and scams. Many of the attendees had stories to share about being approached by unscrupulous individuals trying to lure them into obvious scam situations. The Senior Scam Stopper Summit, sponsored by Assemblywoman Laurie Davies – 74th District, is becoming an annual event, held in various locations, with the intent of informing people on what to look out for in the rising problem of scams occurring via phone or computer contact.
Several prominent speakers were in attendance at this year’s summit. Those taking part included Vista Mayor John Franklin, 74th District Assemblywoman Laurie Davies, San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephan, San Diego County Assessor/Recorder/Clerk Jordan Marks, Aide to Oceanside District 2 Councilmember Rick Robinson, and San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez, along with members of the Elder Abuse Unit. Each speaker addressed the issues involving scams, their methodology, and the specific scams currently under investigation or in operation. There were also tents outside of the Council Chambers with handouts available from a variety of agencies dealing with Scam Prevention, Elder and Veteran Abuse and other issues pertinent to Seniors.
The event began with a welcome from Vista Mayor John Franklin, who spoke about the importance of the day’s presentations, who would be speaking and how people should be diligent in learning how to avoid being caught in a scam. Mayor Franklin then introduced Assemblywoman Laurie Davies. The Assemblywoman said this is the 4th year her office has presented this program dealing with fraud and scams. She said an FBI report pointed out that over $4.8 billion dollars has been lost to scammers, and this is a 43% increase from last year. The Assemblywoman also said the average amount of money lost by individuals to a scam is $830,000. In San Diego County alone over $100 million dollars was lost to scammers. She said her office is currently working on legislation to make punishment more severe for individuals caught in working scams. A number of pamphlets were available at her tent dealing with safety tips for Seniors in dealing with scams on the phone, at home and in public. This also included ways to determine if something is a scam, and information on Health Insurance Scams and Financial Fraud and Scams. Much of this information is available at www.asmrc.org/Davies or through the Federal Trade Commission at www.consumer.gov.
The Assemblywoman then introduced San Diego County District Attorney Summer Stephen.
District Attorney Stephan emphasized over and over the importance of reporting scams. She said seniors are sometime ashamed to report that they have been involved in a scam, but if they don’t report immediately, the longer they wait the harder it is for authorities to investigate and attempt to recover any of the money the senior has lost. She said her office has an Elder Justice Task Force established that investigates fraud and scams specifically. The District Attorney said that last year in San Diego County over $132 million was lost to scammers and her office was only able to recover $275 thousand dollars for individuals.
She said the scammers are getting harder and harder to catch, especially because they are now using AI to create photos and voices of relatives or acquaintances of the person being scammed.
Stephen reminded people that these scammers are ruthless in getting your money and will use any tactics they can to do this. They will lie to you, misuse your information, and pressure you into signing anything and change your information, she added that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is not true. If you get a phone call from a number you do not know, DON’T ANSWER IT. If you do answer it and it seems questionable, hang up, write down the number and report it to authorities. If a pop-up appears on your computer, especially threatening to do something with your computer if you do not call the number they are listing; DON’T CALL THE NUMBER and TURN OFF YOUR COMPUTER, even if it says not to. Stephen went through a number of Scams they have seen recently including IRS Scams, Social Security Scams, Gift Card Scams, Impersonation Scams, Bank Scams, Bitcoin and Crypto Scams, Microsoft Scam, Grandparent Scams, and Romance Scams. The Grandparent Scams usually come as phone calls pretending to be a relative in financial trouble. Anything asking you to close accounts or move money with someone picking money up from your home is not legitimate and should be reported to the sheriff’s office. Go to www.ic3.gov to report internet crime complaints.
The next speaker was County Assessor Jordan Marks. Marks began by speaking to the veterans in the audience saying veterans should take advantage of savings they can get on their property taxes if they qualify. He introduced Martin Arias, Taxpayer Advocate – 619-541-1134. Marks also said the San Marcos Office is the closest office for North County residents. Handouts were available for their Owner Alert program homeowners can sign up for free, to allow notifications to be sent to homeowners immediately anytime a document is recorded with their office trying to transfer title to your property. Go to www.sdarcc.gov/owneralert or call 619-238-8158 for more information. Handouts were also available for Homeowners Exemption, Senior and Family Transfer Property Tax Savings, and other tax savings programs.
Jack Cleary, Aide to Oceanside Councilmember Rick Robinson, presented a demonstration on how to block a fake site on your computer concerning signing up for services to provide virus security. These pop-up scams are becoming more prevalent. He demonstrated a method, especially if you have an Apple computer. Otherwise, simply turning off your computer will generally delete the pop-up.
The final speaker was the San Diego County Sheriff Kelly Martinez. The sheriff spoke about the need for all people to stay informed about being diligent to protect yourself from fraud and scams. Sheriff Martinez introduced the Elder Abuse Unit – Detective Corporal Ron Bushnell, Detective Matt Smith, Detective Ryan Smith and Detective Troy Udvarhelyi. Ron spoke about a recent scam involving a caller posing as a Sheriff’s Deputy demanding money to help a person’s relative they had arrested. Matt spoke about the San Diego Elder Justice Task Force group working with the FBI to investigate the numerous scams in operation. They have 50 suspects presently going through various stages of prosecution. He said a Lakeside couple was recently involved in falling victim to a pop-up scam and a Vista resident lost $900,000 to a government impersonation scam. Detective Ryan Smith spoke about the importance of never giving out your personal information to unknown organizations, phone numbers of anything on the internet that has a fake looking URL listing.
Other information that was available to those attending the Summit was information on preventing veteran abuse, assistance with Alzheimer issues, info on Lithium-Ion Battery Safety, a pamphlet on Aging in California and a newsletter from the Gloria McClellan Senior Center.
The main lesson learned from the Senior Scam Stopper Summit is it is up to you individually to stay sharp in dealing with anything that looks suspicious. And most importantly, report frauds and scams to the authorities. There are agencies available to assist in dealing with these scams. Protect your personal information at all times.
