According to recent stats, approximately 608 million people are victims of scams every year. If you’re a Laughter On Call subscriber, or you came to the webinar last week, recording here, you may feel like I’m beating a dead horse with all the scammer talk. I wish! The deeper I dive into this evil phenomenon the more alive it feels.
The other stat that gives me pause is the 2.3 billion dollars lost to scammers in 2024. That number is just for our elder population. Which, according to LA County, I fall under. Because I filed a police report two weeks ago, I actually got a home visit from an LA County social worker in my district. She wanted to know if I was stable. I wanted to use this as a set up to do a tight five on what the likelihood is that I’ve ever been stable, but thought better of it. Then she asked me if I had enough food. Fortunately she didn’t come into the kitchen to assess the nutritional value of my post-trauma chocolate, caffeine and popcorn diet.
Back to the point though, in case you missed the webinar, which you can watch here, I’ve put together a list of precautions given to us by the Assistant U.S. Attorney Lisa Feldman:
- DON’T ANSWER ANY PHONE NUMBER YOU DON’T KNOW
- SAME WITH E-MAIL - DON’T RESPOND AND DON’T CLICK ON LINKS.
- IF ANYONE DOES GET YOU ON THE PHONE, THE MINUTE THEY SAY, “DON’T TELL ANYONE - OR SOMEONE IN PARTICULAR LIKE YOUR SPOUSE OR YOUR SON/DAUGHTER, HANG UP
- IF THIS STRANGER TELLS YOU WHATEVER YOU HAVE TO DO HAS TO BE HANDLED RIGHT NOW, HANG UP
- IF YOU ARE CONCERNED THAT IT MIGHT BE LEGIT - FROM YOUR BANK OR BEST BUY OR AMAZON, ETC. CALL THE BANK/COMPANY YOURSELF
- IF THEY SAY THEY HAVE A FAMILY MEMBER ASK FOR A PIECE OF INFORMATION THAT ONLY A REAL FAMILY MEMBER WOULD HAVE. YOU CAN PREDETERMINE THIS QUESTION IN YOUR FAMILY.
- DON’T ANSWER ANY PHONE NUMBER YOU DON’T KNOW - SEE WHAT I DID THERE? I WROTE IT TWICE - THAT’S HOW IMPORTANT IT IS.
If you want some cathartic entertainment on the subject, watch The Beekeeper. And follow this guy, Mark Rober. He is fierce about bringing justice to scam victims.
If you have questions/concerns you can also reach out to Lisa Feldman through email here: Lisa.Feldman@usdoj.gov.
In closing, and really I have to close the door on my own story with this, Wells Fargo did not reimburse the $4058.27. I am trying to take it as a life lesson. The biggest of which for me is to slow down. As the bestselling author Scott O’Neil insists, “Be Where Your Feet Are.”
Oh yeah, and don’t answer texts or e-mails from people you don’t know. Winky face.
