WEBVTT
1
00:00:01.199 --> 00:00:04.799
This program is designed to provide general information with regards
2
00:00:04.839 --> 00:00:07.799
to the subject matters covered. This information is given with
3
00:00:07.879 --> 00:00:12.160
the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station
4
00:00:12.439 --> 00:00:17.640
are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,
5
00:00:18.000 --> 00:00:22.920
legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek
6
00:00:22.960 --> 00:00:27.039
the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any
7
00:00:27.160 --> 00:00:32.960
suggested ideas. The information contained in this podcast is intended
8
00:00:33.000 --> 00:00:36.200
for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for
9
00:00:36.280 --> 00:00:40.640
individual professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled
10
00:00:40.640 --> 00:00:44.759
from debted sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to
11
00:00:44.840 --> 00:00:47.840
safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall
12
00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:52.840
victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the
13
00:00:53.159 --> 00:00:56.840
must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves
14
00:00:56.840 --> 00:01:00.840
and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday at am
15
00:01:01.000 --> 00:01:05.359
Pacific time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder
16
00:01:05.400 --> 00:01:09.799
of Rose, and her guests will provide valuable insights and
17
00:01:09.920 --> 00:01:14.799
practical tips on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams.
18
00:01:15.079 --> 00:01:18.799
And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
19
00:01:20.480 --> 00:01:24.000
Good Morning, everybody, welcome to Let's talk about Scams. My
20
00:01:24.120 --> 00:01:27.560
name is Brian Watson. I am a community outreach specialist
21
00:01:27.599 --> 00:01:32.519
for Rose Resources Outreach to safeguard the elderly. Obviously, I'm
22
00:01:32.560 --> 00:01:36.599
not Joyce Petrowski. Joyce is our founder. She is taking
23
00:01:36.640 --> 00:01:39.920
a much needed break and I'm very flattered that she
24
00:01:40.439 --> 00:01:43.840
lets me fill in and take the reins to this show.
25
00:01:44.760 --> 00:01:48.959
Today we are going to talk about phone scams and
26
00:01:49.120 --> 00:01:52.879
the title of this week's show is It's Okay to
27
00:01:53.000 --> 00:01:56.200
Hang up on Scammers. I am giving you permission. So
28
00:01:57.120 --> 00:01:59.680
I do a lot of presentations. I've done at least
29
00:01:59.719 --> 00:02:03.040
seven five presentations over the last two years to a
30
00:02:03.120 --> 00:02:09.039
variety of audiences. And scams are a very very heavy topic.
31
00:02:09.560 --> 00:02:13.840
I mean, we tell stories of people who've lost their
32
00:02:13.879 --> 00:02:18.360
life savings. There's stories of people who've committed suicide because
33
00:02:18.400 --> 00:02:21.439
they've lost everything. It's a tough topic to talk about.
34
00:02:21.879 --> 00:02:24.639
So I like to inject a little bit of humor.
35
00:02:24.800 --> 00:02:28.879
It's okay to laugh. It's just necessary to lighten the
36
00:02:28.919 --> 00:02:33.199
mood a little bit. And so I tell some funny
37
00:02:33.240 --> 00:02:37.240
stories and I tell people it's okay to laugh. And
38
00:02:37.280 --> 00:02:38.919
one of the things I like to do I want
39
00:02:38.960 --> 00:02:41.400
to show my first slide today, my only slide today.
40
00:02:42.319 --> 00:02:47.120
It is a picture of a yellow rotary foam and
41
00:02:47.479 --> 00:02:53.080
this one's actually generated by artificial intelligence AI is very
42
00:02:53.159 --> 00:02:57.080
useful in my mind. But I show this picture to
43
00:02:57.199 --> 00:03:01.280
my audience and I ask them, raise your hand if
44
00:03:01.280 --> 00:03:04.599
you ever had this phone at your house. And the
45
00:03:04.879 --> 00:03:06.800
funny thing that happens is I get a bunch of
46
00:03:06.840 --> 00:03:12.039
hands that raise up and everyone laughs because we all
47
00:03:12.080 --> 00:03:15.199
had this phone around nineteen eighty. I grew up with
48
00:03:15.240 --> 00:03:17.759
a phone just like this in my house and it
49
00:03:17.879 --> 00:03:20.280
was yellow. And what I've come to find out doing
50
00:03:20.360 --> 00:03:24.639
all these presentations is there was like one model of phones,
51
00:03:24.759 --> 00:03:28.000
and I think there were only three colors, and here
52
00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:30.919
here's the yellow one. The other ones were like light
53
00:03:31.039 --> 00:03:36.599
blue and maybe some other shade. But it always gets
54
00:03:36.599 --> 00:03:39.159
a laugh because you know, people can relate to this
55
00:03:39.199 --> 00:03:41.520
because we all had this phone. And after I show
56
00:03:41.560 --> 00:03:44.800
the photo of this phone, I always ask what did
57
00:03:44.840 --> 00:03:49.240
we do when that phone rang? And the standard response
58
00:03:49.479 --> 00:03:55.039
that everybody's always provided is we answered it. Well, why
59
00:03:55.400 --> 00:03:59.680
because four years ago we didn't most of us didn't
60
00:03:59.719 --> 00:04:04.080
have call waiting caller ID, we didn't have answering machines.
61
00:04:04.080 --> 00:04:08.280
The telephone was the way that we communicated with our friends,
62
00:04:08.919 --> 00:04:12.360
our families, and our neighbors. It was like the lifeline
63
00:04:13.000 --> 00:04:17.199
to our social life. It's the way Grandma and Grandpa
64
00:04:17.279 --> 00:04:19.759
got ahold of us. It's how we figured out what
65
00:04:19.800 --> 00:04:21.800
we were doing on a Friday night with our friends.
66
00:04:22.519 --> 00:04:26.120
So most people who are my age or older, we
67
00:04:26.240 --> 00:04:29.720
are conditioned to answer the phone because we didn't have
68
00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:34.920
email and text messaging, and we were also expected to
69
00:04:34.959 --> 00:04:38.279
be very polite. You answered the phone, and you're very
70
00:04:38.279 --> 00:04:41.759
respectful to whoever was there. Hanging up on the phone
71
00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:46.839
on someone was unheard of. And also back in the
72
00:04:46.920 --> 00:04:51.839
nineteen eighties, phone scams weren't very prevalent. In fact, there
73
00:04:51.879 --> 00:04:54.199
really were no phone scams. You might get some crank
74
00:04:54.279 --> 00:04:58.279
calls here or there, but it's nothing like we're dealing
75
00:04:58.319 --> 00:05:00.079
with right now. So today, like I said, we're going
76
00:04:59.959 --> 00:05:05.000
to to talk about phone scams. And this phone, this
77
00:05:05.160 --> 00:05:09.639
rotary phone from nineteen eighty ish, is why many of
78
00:05:09.720 --> 00:05:12.680
us get in trouble when it comes to phone scams. Today,
79
00:05:13.319 --> 00:05:17.920
my generation and the generation that's older than me, we
80
00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:21.879
are hardwired to answer the phone, to pick up the
81
00:05:21.920 --> 00:05:25.279
phone and be nice. So all right, we can put
82
00:05:25.319 --> 00:05:27.319
the slide down. We don't need that anymore. Thank you
83
00:05:27.319 --> 00:05:31.199
for watching it, everybody. Next time, I'll have more slides
84
00:05:31.399 --> 00:05:34.319
when I present, I like to have visuals. So what
85
00:05:34.360 --> 00:05:38.439
are some examples of phone scams that we're seeing today. Well,
86
00:05:39.759 --> 00:05:43.120
one very common one is one people scammers pretending to
87
00:05:43.160 --> 00:05:47.839
be the government. This is Social Security Administration. There's something
88
00:05:47.839 --> 00:05:52.560
wrong with your account. This is the IRS. You owe money.
89
00:05:52.639 --> 00:05:57.040
This is Medicare. You need to renew your card or
90
00:05:57.079 --> 00:06:03.079
else you're gonna have no benefits. Stuff right. Or someone
91
00:06:03.120 --> 00:06:06.759
calls up and it's very chaotic in the background and
92
00:06:07.199 --> 00:06:11.759
someone says a young voice grandma grandma or grandpa grandpa.
93
00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:14.920
I'm in jail, help me, help me. That's the grandparent scam.
94
00:06:15.040 --> 00:06:18.279
That one's very common as well. Or the ones we're
95
00:06:18.279 --> 00:06:23.079
seeing more lately is this is so and so from
96
00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:26.680
the security department at your bank. Someone is trying to
97
00:06:26.720 --> 00:06:29.319
steal your money. We need to move it somewhere safe,
98
00:06:29.920 --> 00:06:34.439
and you instantly panic and believe them. Or this is
99
00:06:34.920 --> 00:06:37.759
a computer company and there is a virus on your computer.
100
00:06:37.839 --> 00:06:39.759
We need to act quickly or you're going to lose
101
00:06:39.800 --> 00:06:42.399
all your files. And the last one I want to
102
00:06:42.399 --> 00:06:46.480
mention today is the one you won a prize call?
103
00:06:47.079 --> 00:06:50.560
This is Publishers Clearing, how sweepstakes? You've just won our
104
00:06:50.600 --> 00:06:54.480
grand prize. How would you like your money? So these
105
00:06:54.480 --> 00:06:56.639
are types of phone scams we're talking about. And the
106
00:06:56.759 --> 00:06:59.920
people that call, the scammers that call are very good.
107
00:07:00.399 --> 00:07:04.319
They are not first time callers. They are sitting in
108
00:07:04.360 --> 00:07:07.959
an office somewhere, probably with a lot of other people,
109
00:07:08.759 --> 00:07:12.959
using computers and reading scripts off that computer. They're literally
110
00:07:13.040 --> 00:07:17.480
just reading and if the caller says a certain thing,
111
00:07:17.560 --> 00:07:19.519
they have a response for it. They have an answer
112
00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:23.199
for everything. So here's some advice that we like to
113
00:07:23.199 --> 00:07:27.079
give it Rose. In order to not be scammed, we
114
00:07:27.279 --> 00:07:30.600
recommend that you screen your phone calls. So what does
115
00:07:30.600 --> 00:07:33.720
that mean? That means when the phone rings, I have
116
00:07:33.800 --> 00:07:36.519
my cell phone in front of me. Here, I look
117
00:07:36.560 --> 00:07:41.240
at the caller ID. I pretty much only answer calls
118
00:07:41.600 --> 00:07:44.920
if the person is already in my address book on
119
00:07:44.959 --> 00:07:49.000
my phone, my contact list, and you know, and if
120
00:07:49.040 --> 00:07:54.279
they're not, all my alarms go off and I'm very
121
00:07:54.360 --> 00:07:57.879
very cautious and I'm prepared to hang up. But look
122
00:07:57.920 --> 00:07:59.920
at the caller ID. Make sure it's someone you know.
123
00:08:01.519 --> 00:08:03.879
You can screen the call. That means let it go
124
00:08:04.000 --> 00:08:10.240
to voicemail, okay. If it's legitimate, someone will leave a message.
125
00:08:10.480 --> 00:08:13.360
For instance, a new doctor you're going to, they'll leave
126
00:08:13.399 --> 00:08:16.279
a message, this is doctor Smith's office. We're trying to
127
00:08:16.319 --> 00:08:19.759
reach you, Centurion. We want to schedule an appointment. Please
128
00:08:19.800 --> 00:08:22.319
call us back at this number. Then you can call
129
00:08:22.399 --> 00:08:26.160
them back. That's just the way you do it. Now,
130
00:08:26.199 --> 00:08:29.000
if you do answer the phone and you don't like
131
00:08:29.120 --> 00:08:34.480
the way it's going, you have a duty to yourself
132
00:08:34.679 --> 00:08:38.720
to your family to end the call. Scammers are going
133
00:08:38.799 --> 00:08:41.840
to lie to you and try to take your money.
134
00:08:42.000 --> 00:08:44.679
All you have to do is hit that button that
135
00:08:44.759 --> 00:08:48.919
says end call. You don't have to apologize, you just
136
00:08:49.000 --> 00:08:53.000
hit that button. And if you can't do that, I'm
137
00:08:53.000 --> 00:08:57.440
giving you permission to lie to scammers. Okay. And another
138
00:08:57.480 --> 00:09:01.159
funny story is last year where I was at a
139
00:09:01.320 --> 00:09:07.200
church in Tucson, Arizona, and I start talking about phone scams,
140
00:09:07.840 --> 00:09:11.919
and I told everybody, you are allowed to lie. And
141
00:09:11.960 --> 00:09:14.600
then it caught my attention real quick that I was
142
00:09:14.639 --> 00:09:16.799
in a house of worship, and of course that got
143
00:09:16.799 --> 00:09:19.200
a chuckle. Like I said at the beginning of the show,
144
00:09:19.639 --> 00:09:22.840
it's okay to have fun talking scam prevention it lightens
145
00:09:22.879 --> 00:09:26.240
the mood, it relaxes us a little bit. We're still
146
00:09:26.559 --> 00:09:29.159
very serious about what we do here and the advice
147
00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:34.320
that we provide. But you can laugh. But yes, I'm
148
00:09:34.360 --> 00:09:38.360
giving you permission to lie. You have no obligation to
149
00:09:38.399 --> 00:09:41.320
be polite to scammers. They are calling you up and
150
00:09:41.360 --> 00:09:44.519
trying to take your life savings. So when I say
151
00:09:44.559 --> 00:09:46.879
you can lie to a scammer because you're just too
152
00:09:46.879 --> 00:09:49.960
afraid to hang up. What are some examples of lies
153
00:09:50.919 --> 00:09:55.159
that I tell people to use. Well, one you could
154
00:09:55.159 --> 00:09:57.440
say I have friends at the house right now. My
155
00:09:57.519 --> 00:09:59.720
friends are over right now, we're doing book club, we're
156
00:09:59.720 --> 00:10:03.600
playing cards, we're having dinner, we're having happy hour. I'm
157
00:10:03.679 --> 00:10:06.120
too busy right now. I'll call you back later or
158
00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:10.919
leave a message text me. You can say someone's at
159
00:10:10.960 --> 00:10:14.240
the door, you know my friend, we're bringing over some food,
160
00:10:14.360 --> 00:10:17.919
or dropping off a shipment that was received, that the
161
00:10:18.080 --> 00:10:21.279
mail they picked up, or something like that. How about
162
00:10:21.279 --> 00:10:23.200
this one, I have food in the oven, I don't
163
00:10:23.240 --> 00:10:24.879
have time to talk right now, I don't want to
164
00:10:24.919 --> 00:10:28.840
burn dinner. Or you can even say I need to
165
00:10:28.919 --> 00:10:33.159
use the restroom, like everyone understands that one. So those
166
00:10:33.200 --> 00:10:37.000
are four lies that I just shared with you that
167
00:10:37.080 --> 00:10:40.360
you can provide to scammers. You know, the best thing
168
00:10:40.440 --> 00:10:44.960
is screen your call. The next thing is, if you
169
00:10:45.000 --> 00:10:47.519
don't like the way the call's going, just hang up,
170
00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:50.840
just say I'm sorry, hang up, bye, no, thank you.
171
00:10:51.399 --> 00:10:53.120
And then the third option is if you got in
172
00:10:53.200 --> 00:10:56.159
that far and you're afraid to hang up, and you're afraid,
173
00:10:57.480 --> 00:11:00.279
just you can lie. Okay, scammers are going to lie
174
00:11:00.320 --> 00:11:02.919
to you, you can lie to them. So what I've
175
00:11:03.000 --> 00:11:07.000
learned to being in the scam prevention business in the
176
00:11:07.039 --> 00:11:11.120
nonprofit world, working for Rose for almost two years, it
177
00:11:11.200 --> 00:11:14.200
doesn't matter how smart you are, how educated you are,
178
00:11:14.480 --> 00:11:19.440
where you live, how much money you have. Today's scammers
179
00:11:19.600 --> 00:11:25.000
are professional criminals. They are way better at this than
180
00:11:25.039 --> 00:11:28.440
you are. This is what they do full time. Okay,
181
00:11:28.600 --> 00:11:31.840
it's just not a fair fight. And they're using these
182
00:11:31.840 --> 00:11:35.159
scripts that are proven to work. And these scammers sound
183
00:11:35.320 --> 00:11:40.799
very professional their voices. The background noise is the terminology
184
00:11:40.919 --> 00:11:46.840
they use. They have an answer for everything, and every
185
00:11:46.960 --> 00:11:51.559
victim that I've met is a very smart person who's
186
00:11:51.679 --> 00:11:55.399
just been outwitted by a clever criminal. And that's been
187
00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:58.279
one of the biggest surprises. When I started doing these
188
00:11:58.279 --> 00:12:02.960
presentations for Rose. I expected to meet some victims, and
189
00:12:03.279 --> 00:12:07.159
I really thought the victims were going to be would
190
00:12:07.200 --> 00:12:10.000
have some sort of cognitive decline, you know, would not
191
00:12:10.200 --> 00:12:13.440
be there. But that has not been the case. Everyone
192
00:12:13.519 --> 00:12:18.120
that's been scammed that I know, they handle their finances,
193
00:12:18.480 --> 00:12:21.320
they pay their own bills, they have a phone, they
194
00:12:21.320 --> 00:12:24.600
have a computer. They might have, you know, an iPad
195
00:12:24.679 --> 00:12:27.320
or a tablet or something like that. They're very active
196
00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:30.399
on the internet. They're super smart. But they're just the
197
00:12:30.480 --> 00:12:33.039
people to get scammed, just engaged with the criminals, and
198
00:12:33.039 --> 00:12:36.720
you have to disengage. So I have this story I
199
00:12:36.759 --> 00:12:40.519
want to share. I do a lot of presentations and
200
00:12:40.600 --> 00:12:44.519
sometimes I do them with other people, and I've had
201
00:12:44.559 --> 00:12:48.320
the opportunity to work with my new friend Laura. She's
202
00:12:48.360 --> 00:12:53.799
a bank manager and she engages with a lot of people.
203
00:12:54.399 --> 00:12:58.039
And Laura is awesome because she stopped a lot of scams.
204
00:12:58.600 --> 00:13:02.799
She's at her branch, she's always looking out for her customers.
205
00:13:03.519 --> 00:13:08.879
And Laura tells this story when we do these joint presentations.
206
00:13:09.600 --> 00:13:13.039
She had a client who lost money through a phone
207
00:13:13.039 --> 00:13:18.320
scam and the client, the customer had said, yeah, I
208
00:13:18.399 --> 00:13:22.399
knew I was getting scammed. I knew but you know,
209
00:13:22.440 --> 00:13:26.799
I just I didn't know what to do. And Laura said, well,
210
00:13:26.840 --> 00:13:29.960
why didn't you just hang up on this scammer. You're
211
00:13:29.960 --> 00:13:32.320
a smart woman, you knew you were getting scammed. You
212
00:13:32.360 --> 00:13:35.120
didn't like the way the phone call was going. And
213
00:13:35.159 --> 00:13:39.039
the customer said that she didn't want to be rude.
214
00:13:40.000 --> 00:13:44.879
Now let's just take a step back there. This lady's
215
00:13:45.639 --> 00:13:50.480
parents would be very proud that their daughter had good manners,
216
00:13:50.799 --> 00:13:54.200
especially on the phone, was polite. But you know what,
217
00:13:54.600 --> 00:13:57.200
we can't do this anymore. We do not have to
218
00:13:57.200 --> 00:13:59.600
be nice anymore. We have to tough enough. We have
219
00:13:59.639 --> 00:14:02.440
to get us fine, and you need to be a
220
00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:07.120
little mean. Okay, I am giving you permission to be
221
00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:11.399
mean to scammers, to lie to scammers, to just hang
222
00:14:11.480 --> 00:14:13.840
up the phone not have to say anything. It's time
223
00:14:13.919 --> 00:14:17.240
for all of us to put away the niceties and
224
00:14:17.399 --> 00:14:22.080
refuse to be the victims of scams, especially these phone scams.
225
00:14:24.159 --> 00:14:27.679
Every time I hear of someone else getting taken advantage of,
226
00:14:28.399 --> 00:14:31.600
I get a little angry and I get frustrated. And
227
00:14:31.600 --> 00:14:36.000
it's actually very motivating for me and my colleagues at
228
00:14:36.080 --> 00:14:39.759
Rose to get out there and meet more people and
229
00:14:39.879 --> 00:14:43.960
warn them, and so We also want you to go
230
00:14:44.000 --> 00:14:48.120
to Rosadvocacy dot org. We have a great website for
231
00:14:48.240 --> 00:14:52.279
more information. Please please please sign up for our monthly email.
232
00:14:52.879 --> 00:14:55.080
When you sign up for that, you'll get an email
233
00:14:55.159 --> 00:14:58.000
every single month with the latest scams and tips and
234
00:14:58.159 --> 00:15:01.279
just good ideas to share. When you get that email,
235
00:15:01.720 --> 00:15:04.440
share it with your friends and families and your neighbors.
236
00:15:04.919 --> 00:15:07.200
Tell them, hey, you've got to be doing something about
237
00:15:07.200 --> 00:15:11.919
scam prevention. And then also today's radio show, share this
238
00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:15.399
podcast with someone you know. We're keeping it tight here.
239
00:15:15.480 --> 00:15:18.759
This is like less than twenty minutes. It's an easy watch.
240
00:15:19.200 --> 00:15:23.360
And this is some good advice. Not that I came
241
00:15:23.440 --> 00:15:25.840
up with this advice. This is advice everyone shares in
242
00:15:25.840 --> 00:15:29.879
the nonprofit world. That's just good common sense advice. Screen
243
00:15:29.919 --> 00:15:33.960
your phone calls, be willing to hang up, be willing