Slam the Scam Campaign
Hello friends and family,
I am happy to talk about these topics with any of you via a reply just to me.
Our office is doing some outreach to try and minimize the financial impact of scams in our country.
To that end, we are sharing some helpful information designed to keep you safe and secure, personally and financially.
Check out our website at www.fbi.gov and you'll find an abundance of helpful topics on security for your family and finances. On the home screen you will see the caption "FBI Urges Vigilance During COVID-19 Pandemic" that includes information on related frauds to be aware of; back on the home screen, scroll down to the bottom of the page, on the far right you will see the caption "More" and below that you will see the caption "Scams and Safety." Click on that and you'll find a brevity of very helpful information for you and your family and friends. Topics include Advance Fee Schemes, Credit Card Fraud, Elder Fraud, Identity Theft, Non-Delivery of Merchandise, Pyramid Schemes, Reverse Mortgage Scams, etc..
General rules of thumb I still rely on:
- if it seems to be to good to be true, it most likely is, for instance those lottery winning certificates/checks from lotteries you never entered;
- if a number comes up on my cell phone that is not in my directory I let it go to voicemail, too often elders/retirees go ahead and answer every call and thereby are most susceptible to fraud calls;
- check out the Do Not Call Registry online. You can register your cell or house phone with them to help reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive. It will not get rid of all of them, but it will help. They are managed by the Federal Trade Commission.
- experts advise that if you are using updated email and browser software then you can likely read suspicious emails with no worries, but never click on links or attachments within them, those may download a virus to your computer and wipe it out, and worse will work to steal your identity; then block that sender from ever sending you another email that wastes your time;
- you can also report scams to federal law enforcement via an email to www.ic3.gov which is a site managed by the FBI and works to link similar complaints/victims/subjects in efforts to build a better case and forward that collective info to the jurisdictionally appropriate office to investigate/prosecute;
- keep shredding documents that contain personal identifying information, and pay a little more for a shredder that shreds documents in a criss/cross pattern as opposed to linguini style;
- check your credit report at least annually, we are all allowed one free copy a year via Experian, TransUnion or Equifax, find them online, or sign up with one of their credit monitoring services, I use Experian's;
- be leary of ordering from unknown online retailers, too many of them have loose restrictions with your credit card information which leads to unauthorized purchases;
- curious about registered sex offenders living nearby, type in your browser "Connecticut Sex Offender Registry" and a site called "sheriffalert" pops up, this is the CT site. If you want to be certain, instead of clicking on this site, scroll down in your browser until you get to the portal.ct.gov site, once there on the left you will see CT Sex Offender Registry, click that and you will be at the sheriffalert site. In the top left you will see "search for offenders in my area," but before you click that you have to check an acknowledgement box at the bottom, then go back to the top left and click on the search button. You will then go to a screen where you put in your address. Once that is done and you click "search" a map will come up with offenders within a mile of your residence. You can expand that out if you choose.
Stay safe out there ... Ron Offutt
