Our speaker was officer David Kotiga, Summit Police Department, Community Policing Unit. His topic was financial scams primarily aimed at senior citizens.Turns out scams have now become so prolific, nearly everyone is at risk, seniors perhaps more so, but scams are now occurring in every communication medium, and anyone can be victimized. He began by noting that in 2024 US citizens suffered approximately ten billion dollars lost to scammers. Phishing scams and related email scams are the most prevalent, but the scammers use texting as well as the telephone to trap the unwary. The more common scam formats are phony crypto and electronic purchases, IRS over or under payments, tech support issues, romance related, and the ever-present ‘grandma’ scam – ‘grandma I’ve been arrested and I need $500 for bail’, etc., etc.
Officer Kotiga offered some advice as to how one can best protect him/her self: don’t answer an unrecognized caller ID; simply hang up if the call is suspicious; don’t engage – never give out any personal information, ever; be suspicious of any email asking for you to click on a link and check the sender’s email address to see if it is different from whomever the sender purports to be. He also noted that the scams are in a constant state of evolution and with AI, getting more realistic looking and likely to become better camouflaged in the future. When in doubt hang up and never, ever click on a link you do not have full confidence in.
Modern communications offer a wealth of advantages and opportunities, but sadly, they also offer criminals new opportunities to steal identities, money and property – a little paranoia can go a long way in protecting one from scammers – there are lots of them.
Mike Katz, Officer Kotiga, David Dietze & Pete Bolton