Jan. 6, 2026

New Year - Let's Get Down to Scam Basics

Show Notes
Transcript

Happy New Year! We are going back to the basics of a scam - reviewing our Anatomy of a Scam.

Tune in to learn how to recognize a scam.

Let’s Talk About Scams is broadcast live Tuesdays at 8AM PT on K4HD Radio - Hollywood Talk Radio (www.k4hd.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com). Let’s Talk About Scams TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).

Let’s Talk About Scams Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Media (www.talk4media.com), Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com), iHeartRadio, Amazon Music, Pandora, Spotify, Audible, and over 100 other podcast outlets.

Disclaimer: The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional / legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted sources and references; however, R.O.S.E. Resources / Outreach to Safeguard the Elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam.

Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/let-s-talk-about-scams--6483699/support.

WEBVTT

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This program is designed to provide general information with regards

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to the subject matters covered. This information is given with

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the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station

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are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial,

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legal counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek

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the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any

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suggested ideas. The information contained in this podcast is intended

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for informational purposes only and is not a substitute for

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individual professional legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled

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from vetted sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to

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safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall

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victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the

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must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves

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and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific

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time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose,

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and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips

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on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And

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now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.

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Welcome back, Everybody Happy, new year.

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Hard to believe it's two and twenty six. I was

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just thinking back earlier when I remember twenty six years

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ago when it flipped over to from nineteen ninety nine

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to the year two thousand and everybody was worried that,

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like the ATMs weren't going to work, and you know

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that the dates wouldn't transfer over and all of that stuff.

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So it's hard to believe now it's twenty twenty six.

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So you can find more information about what we do

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on our website at Roseadvocacy dot org. You can find

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more resources. You'll find all the links to our social

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media channels are on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and

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you can find all of our past episodes on YouTube

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under the live section.

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And scroll down to the bottom.

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Of the homepage and you'll find where you can sign

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up for our newsletters. We do an emailed newsletter and

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we do a mailed newsletter. The mail newsletter comes out

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once a month at the beginning of the month. You

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guys should have probably already received yours for January. Our

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emailed newsletter, we do a bigger one at the beginning

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of the month. This month is going to be delayed

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a little bit because I'm changing the design on it,

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so it took a little bit longer to do that.

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But then every Tuesday morning we do a Tuesday Tip

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nine to fifteen Arizona time in the morning, you're going

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to get a Tuesday Tip to your inbox. Might be

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a tip you're not aware of, might be a tip

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you already know about, but that's fine because what it

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does is it helps reinforce your healthy skepticism to always

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do your research in question before just accepting that a

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contact is legitimate, and it helps build your scam awareness

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in your prevention habits.

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It just reinforces it.

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So anyways, today, with being the new year, we're going

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to go back to the basics and we're going to

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talk about the anatomy of a scam. We're going to

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go through the different components, and then we're going to

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go through some general tips that you could use with

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any scam. So I'm going to share my screen and

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pull up our Anatomy of a scam infographic.

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We created this gosh I keep saying a few.

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Years ago, two years ago, but now it's probably three

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years ago that we have created that, and we broke

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down scams into three different parts, and.

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Let me blow this up a little bit to give

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you an idea of what scams are in general.

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We found doing our presentations we would talk about maybe

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five scams that have a tendency.

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To target the older adults. But we were always.

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Behind the eight ball because new scams come up all

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the time. So we created this anatomy of a scam.

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And if you look in the blue here, this first

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part is initiating contact and you can see the different ways.

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You know, they can call you on the phone, send

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you an email, send.

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You a text.

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Yes, they do still send things in the mail, although

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not as much as you know they used to when

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they first started the scams.

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But then online and online is.

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A big way, and your cell phone, your mobile phone

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is a big way. If it's connected to the internet,

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you know you're going to get a lot of online stuff.

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You could be on social media and they could be

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message you, messaging you through social media. You could have

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a there's a lot of different texting apps that are encrypted,

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like WhatsApp is a big one, and scammers like that.

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You know, let's say they message you on social media, well,

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they very quickly want to take it off social media

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and take it over to an encrypted app like WhatsApp,

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and they're going to want to communicate with you there.

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You know, they can you get your emails on your

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mobile phone. Chances are that's where you're going to be

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looking at them, your text messages, the phone calls. Not

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a lot of people have landlines anymore. Some people still do,

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and they could get scam calls on their landlines as well.

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But your mobile phone is a big way because we

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do a lot of our day to day task and

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we're on our phones a lot. But now that's not

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to say that you're not going to get contacted through

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an iPad or a Android you know, laptop or.

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An Android phone.

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But maybe an iPad or a laptop or a desktop,

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anything that is you know, connected to the internet. They

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can find a way to contact you. And as I said,

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your mobile phone is going to be a big way.

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And once you engage with them, when they contact you,

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they very very quickly go over into this second part

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in the purple, which is called creating a compelling reason

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to act. This is where your emotions come into play,

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and they run the gamut on emotions. They know that

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the longer they can keep you in your emotional state.

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The better chance the better, the better they are able

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to get you to send them money.

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That's what they want.

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Yes, they might be asking for personal information, but if

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they want to steal your identity, it's all to be

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able to take credit out in your name and do

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things like that in order to get money. So money's

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their endgame. And you know, I hear a lot of people,

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doesn't matter what their age is, they fallen victim to

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a scam. They say, you know, I feel so stupid

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that I fell for that. I didn't see the red

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sign or the red flags. But you have to understand

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if you are making decisions out of an emotional state,

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there is a very good chance that you are not.

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That's not the decision you would normally have made had.

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You been in a rational state of mind.

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It's only after the scam that you have time to

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think about it, and then you start noticing the red

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flags and realizing, oh, I've been I've fallen victim to this.

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So your emotions are a very powerful motivator in order

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to do what the scammer wants. And you know, there's

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a ton of different emotions and depending on the scam,

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they might have you scared. They might have you angry, upset,

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feeling like you're you know, in love, you're grieving the

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loss of your partner and now you have a love

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interest again. We're just not thinking rationally when we're an

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emotional state, and they very quickly then will come down

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to and this says requesting payment. It's requesting money. I

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had somebody tell me once you know, I wasn't paid.

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They didn't request payment for like a bill. They requested

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money for a variety of different reasons. They like wire transfers.

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If you've ever done a wire transfer through your bank,

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you will get notified before it goes through. As you're

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going through and setting it up, are you sure you

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want to do this? Once you send this money, it's gone.

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Is anybody forcing you to do this? So there's prompts

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there that you have to go in and if you

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have multi factor authentications set up, which you should on

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all of your financial accounts, it's going to come in

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and you're probably going to have to get a different

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code as you're going through that transfer process.

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Depends on the bank.

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I know, depending on the dollar amount, I've had to

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put a code in part of the way through the process.

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Of transferring money. They also like the Venmol, the Zell's,

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the PayPal, those peer to peer payment apps. Zell's are

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connected to your bank account. They are run right through

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your bank, and you want to make sure you have

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all the security measures enabled if you're using Zel, because

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it is attached to a bank account, We're not saying

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don't ever use it. You have to make the decision.

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It's convenient, it's a convenient way to send money, and

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you have to make the decision. Okay, I'm going to

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use Zel, Well, I'm going to then I'm going to

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lock it down.

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I'm going to put all.

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The security measures in place with Zel and with my bank,

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because if somebody were to be able to get in

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to my Zell, they're going to have access to that

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bank account that it's attached to. And if you've got

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multiple bank accounts all under the same profile, now they

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can go in and they can access those other bank accounts.

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So I've had I've had people tell me that yes,

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they're going to continue to use Zell, which is fine.

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They've got it locked down, they've got it secure. But

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what they've done is they have set up a totally

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separate bank account and that is the only account that

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is attached to their zel so if and they only

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keep a small amount of money in it. So if

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a scammer was able to get into their bank account

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through zell, they only have access to a very small

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amount of money in that one account. That want acount

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is not tied to any of their other accounts. It's

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not on the same profile, so the scammer wouldn't be

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able to see or access any of those other accounts. Venmo,

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my understanding, is a product of PayPal and you know

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those If you're familiar with PayPal that you can have

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your credit cards on there, you can have your bank

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accounts on there. I would highly suggest on PayPal, and

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I don't remember off the top of my head, if

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you can have just a credit card listed in PayPal,

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you might want to check into that and see about

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doing it. And if you can not attach your bank

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account to PayPal and just have a credit card, you

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have so much more recourse with fraudulent charges on a

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credit card than you do your debit card or your

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bank account, So just be careful with those and have

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all the security measures put in place with Venmo and

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and PayPal. Scammers also like gift cards. They don't need

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you to actually send them the gift card. They're going

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to want you to take a picture of the back

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of it after you've scratched off the or you've exposed

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the codes, or they're going to just ask you to

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give them the codes. That's all they need and then

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they have access to the amount of money that's on

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that gift card. Now, something interesting about gift cards, and

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I talked about this in a previous radio show recently

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over the holidays.

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I was at a grocery store.

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It was it fries, and I noticed I was looking

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specifically for an Amazon gift card and they had a

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different way, a different holder for the Visa Master cards.

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The Amazon gift cards wasn't all of the gift cards.

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A lot of the restaurant ones, those still had the

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regular you just pull them off, But this one for

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Amazon and for the Visa Master cards, you actually had

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to pulled down. And it actually the little cardboard covering

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that is around the hook where the gift card goes in,

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you have to pull it down and it breaks that

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that cardboard.

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At the top there.

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So if you're going in and you're buying gift cards

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and you happen to you want to you want to

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buy one, and you happen to see one just laying there.

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If it's that cardboard is ripped at the top, don't

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because that means somebody has pulled it off and you

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don't know what they've done. You don't know if they've

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scanned it and they're just waiting for someone to activate it.

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Go in and pull one off yourself so you know

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that no one has taken that off and done anything

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with it. Hopefully we're going to see that on all

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of the gift cards that they're going to have those

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types of holders, you know, over the coming months. That

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would be fantastic. It also be fantastic if these stores

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that sell gift cards would have them back behind customer service.

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They keep all the cigarettes back there and all that,

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so have the gift cards back there. And yes, it's

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going to take a little bit more time because you've

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00:14:08.279 --> 00:14:10.639
got to go to customer service and ask them for

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00:14:10.679 --> 00:14:13.360
the gift card and then activate it. But it's going

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to be more of a deterrent for somebody to come

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in and try and scan information off those gift cards. Cryptocurrency,

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that's a big one. Scammers love cryptocurrency. I don't know

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if you guys have seen the cryptocurrency ATM machines that

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are out there there. You know, I looked it up

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recently and I want to say it said there was

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like just over maybe seven hundred of them in the

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00:14:42.039 --> 00:14:46.360
state of Arizona. There was over there were thousands of

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00:14:46.399 --> 00:14:49.320
them throughout the United States. There's a few states that

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didn't have any, but the majority of the states had

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00:14:53.320 --> 00:14:57.320
at least one cryptocurrency ATM machine. But Arizona has a

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00:14:57.320 --> 00:15:00.399
lot of them, and scammers know exactly where they're You

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00:15:00.440 --> 00:15:03.360
can just look it up online and it'll, you know,

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tell you where these cryptocurrency ATM machines are at. And

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once the you know, the scammer might have you go

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to your bank and they have they're anticipating the questions

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00:15:16.799 --> 00:15:19.600
the bank teller is going to ask, and so they

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have all the answers. They're on the phone with you,

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and you know they're gonna they're gonna prompt you before

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you go in, but they're going to listen for those

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questions and they're going to tell you what to say.

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They have the answers to those questions, and they've thought

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about them, and you get the money and they're going

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to direct you to a cryptocurrency ATM and you put

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their account number in that they give you and feed

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the machine with the cash and it's gone. It's in

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their crypto wallet and they're going to convert it to

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cash and they're going to take it. So there was

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00:15:53.600 --> 00:15:56.159
not sure if you realized there was a new law

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put into effect in Arizona regarding the cryptocurrency Kiosk machines.

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It went into effect at the end of September. You

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00:16:07.440 --> 00:16:11.320
can look it up just you know, search crypto new

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Cryptocurrency Kiosk law in Arizona and you'll find information on it.

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There are specific things that need to have been done,

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and if you meet those requirements, there is a possibility

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that you could get a refund of the money that

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00:16:27.159 --> 00:16:31.440
you lost in the scam. There's also daily limits that

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new users of these machines can maxi amount they can

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00:16:37.759 --> 00:16:41.320
put in and I believe it's after ten days from

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00:16:41.399 --> 00:16:45.000
your first use of the machine. You then become a

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reoccurring customer and those daily limits go up. But the

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machine is going to you know, when you're done, it

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spits out a receipt. Keep that receipt because if in

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00:16:56.080 --> 00:16:58.799
thirty days that you've found that that was a scam,

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00:16:59.240 --> 00:17:02.240
and you follow and you meet all of the requirements,

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one of which is you need to report it to

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00:17:05.279 --> 00:17:08.440
law enforcement and or the attorney general. And I believe

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00:17:08.480 --> 00:17:10.480
you also need to report it to the owner of

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the machine, the owner operator of the machine, but you're

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00:17:13.640 --> 00:17:15.960
going to get a report from law enforcement or the

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attorney general wherever you report it. Your receipt is your

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00:17:20.759 --> 00:17:23.119
proof that you put a certain amount of money into

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that machine, and the receipt is supposed to have the

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account number of where you're sending the money. And so

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00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:36.519
then your report that you get from the attorney general

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or law enforcement is your proof that you were scammed.

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But you have to meet all the requirements it's within

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00:17:41.519 --> 00:17:46.200
thirty days, and then you could get a refund. I'm

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hoping in the next couple months we're going to be

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able to have a guest on the show that actually

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has successfully gotten a refund from being a victim of

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00:17:55.640 --> 00:17:59.799
a scam using these cryptocurrency ATM machines. So we can

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00:17:59.799 --> 00:18:03.680
go into more detail on that urgency here is in

305
00:18:03.720 --> 00:18:07.480
the middle the majority of the scams. It's urgent from

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00:18:07.519 --> 00:18:11.119
the contact down to getting the money. Now, there are

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a few scams and there could be different ones in

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00:18:13.480 --> 00:18:17.799
the future as well, that they don't request money from

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00:18:17.799 --> 00:18:20.759
the get go, like the romance scam or a pig

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00:18:20.799 --> 00:18:24.799
butchering scam. They're trying to establish a relationship, especially with

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00:18:24.839 --> 00:18:26.839
the romance scam. They want to get you into that

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absolute trust. Once they feel they have you there, then

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the requests start coming for money and it's urgent that

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they need the money and they get the money. The

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00:18:36.680 --> 00:18:39.200
time it takes for you to be in that absolute

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00:18:39.279 --> 00:18:41.640
trust with them varies. It could take a day, it

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00:18:41.640 --> 00:18:45.279
could take a week, a month, and they're invested because

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they know once they get you there and you only

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00:18:47.960 --> 00:18:50.640
believe what they say and you're not believing your family

320
00:18:50.680 --> 00:18:53.599
and your friends and you're not talking to them about

321
00:18:53.680 --> 00:18:57.680
all of this, that they have a better chance of

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00:18:58.119 --> 00:19:02.759
draining your money. So that's the anatomy of a scam.

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00:19:02.880 --> 00:19:09.200
We go over this in our presentations, and then another

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00:19:09.359 --> 00:19:14.680
page from our uh our Identity, Theft and Cyber Safety

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00:19:14.680 --> 00:19:17.160
resource packet that we give out to everybody. It's a

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00:19:17.200 --> 00:19:19.920
thirty page resource packet we give out to everybody at

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00:19:19.920 --> 00:19:24.400
our presentations, and we go through it with them and

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answer questions. This is one of the pages and it

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00:19:28.920 --> 00:19:33.119
has some tips. So pause and assess your emotions is

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00:19:33.160 --> 00:19:37.440
the first one. Pausing is the most important thing there.

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00:19:38.039 --> 00:19:43.240
Slow down, pause and think about the situation. Now, the scammers,

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00:19:43.240 --> 00:19:45.400
if you engage with them, they're going to get you.

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00:19:45.559 --> 00:19:48.240
Try to get you into that emotional state really quickly

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00:19:48.319 --> 00:19:51.000
so you don't have time to stop and pause and

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00:19:51.079 --> 00:19:57.920
think about the situation. The second one, have somebody that

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00:19:58.000 --> 00:20:01.079
you trust that you can talk to, because if you

337
00:20:01.160 --> 00:20:04.759
stop and pause and think about the situation and you're

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00:20:04.920 --> 00:20:09.519
just not sure, you talk to somebody you're trusted person.

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00:20:10.319 --> 00:20:13.920
A lot of times by you saying the situation out loud,

340
00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:19.440
your brain then flips over into its rational state hearing

341
00:20:19.559 --> 00:20:23.440
you explain this, and then all of a sudden you go, Okay, yep,

342
00:20:23.519 --> 00:20:25.759
I get it. It's a scam. I figured it out.

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00:20:25.839 --> 00:20:28.640
Other times you're still in that emotional state. You need

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00:20:28.680 --> 00:20:31.960
your trusted person to be asking you questions, getting you

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00:20:32.039 --> 00:20:34.759
into your rational state so you can understand that this

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00:20:34.920 --> 00:20:40.240
is a scam, and then always verify before you trust.

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00:20:41.200 --> 00:20:44.079
Back in the eighties, Ronald Reagan coined that phrase trust

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00:20:44.119 --> 00:20:47.759
but verify. We could do that back then. We can't

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00:20:47.799 --> 00:20:50.640
do that in today's world. We have to flip it around.

350
00:20:50.759 --> 00:20:54.240
We have to verify before we trust. And I'm going

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00:20:54.319 --> 00:20:55.640
to go through and I'm going to show you a

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00:20:55.640 --> 00:20:59.880
few examples of verifying. But you know, one of them

353
00:21:00.160 --> 00:21:03.400
in particular is like the grandparents scam. You get to

354
00:21:03.480 --> 00:21:07.200
call your grandchild's in trouble or some family members in trouble.

355
00:21:07.799 --> 00:21:10.440
You have their phone number. You call them.

356
00:21:10.680 --> 00:21:14.119
Don't let them on the phone say I changed my number.

357
00:21:14.200 --> 00:21:17.480
Call me at this number. You have their number, call

358
00:21:17.680 --> 00:21:22.000
them on that number and verify what's going on with them.

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00:21:22.400 --> 00:21:25.480
The next one that old adage, if it sounds too

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00:21:25.519 --> 00:21:29.759
good to be true, it probably is. If something in

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00:21:29.799 --> 00:21:32.960
your gut is telling you that this doesn't make sense,

362
00:21:33.319 --> 00:21:35.480
the hair on the back of your neck is cowing up,

363
00:21:35.839 --> 00:21:41.039
anything like that, listen to it. That old adage still works.

364
00:21:42.400 --> 00:21:46.279
Protect your personal information. This is big. You know when

365
00:21:46.279 --> 00:21:49.240
we talk in our presentations about how your information gets

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00:21:49.279 --> 00:21:52.720
out there, and we talk about the hacks and the breaches,

367
00:21:53.359 --> 00:21:56.400
and you can't control those hacks in the breaches, but

368
00:21:56.519 --> 00:22:00.279
what you can control is the information you give to

369
00:22:00.359 --> 00:22:04.119
these companies and make sure you understand why the company

370
00:22:04.240 --> 00:22:08.319
needs certain information. If you don't think they need it,

371
00:22:08.480 --> 00:22:13.440
ask the question, okay, and make sure you understand why

372
00:22:13.480 --> 00:22:17.240
they need it, because it's your personal information and you

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00:22:17.319 --> 00:22:20.680
want to protect it. Be cautious with payments. We talked

374
00:22:20.680 --> 00:22:24.319
about that just a little bit ago. You know, legitimate

375
00:22:24.359 --> 00:22:27.519
companies aren't going to ask you to pay with credit

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00:22:27.559 --> 00:22:33.319
cards with cryptocurrency. Some of them, you know a lot

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00:22:33.359 --> 00:22:36.440
of them, I should say now today takes payment apps

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00:22:36.640 --> 00:22:41.400
because it's convenient. And some companies you know, will accept

379
00:22:41.440 --> 00:22:45.119
wire transfers because if you're an example of that would

380
00:22:45.160 --> 00:22:47.680
be if you're buying or selling property, right you work

381
00:22:47.720 --> 00:22:50.680
through a title company and they want you to wire

382
00:22:50.720 --> 00:22:53.880
the money. But again you need to verify because at

383
00:22:53.920 --> 00:22:56.359
some point the title company would have given you the

384
00:22:56.400 --> 00:22:59.839
information as to where you need to wire the money.

385
00:23:00.079 --> 00:23:02.720
But right before you wire it, you're going to get

386
00:23:02.720 --> 00:23:06.079
a hold of that title company using their verified phone numbers,

387
00:23:07.000 --> 00:23:09.680
and you're going to verify that that still is the

388
00:23:09.839 --> 00:23:18.799
accurate wiring information. The last one, this is really really important.

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All of these are important, but this is just as important.

390
00:23:23.000 --> 00:23:28.240
Having a trusted tech support person. Now you're probably familiar

391
00:23:28.240 --> 00:23:30.559
with the geek squads that are in Best Buy. Those

392
00:23:30.599 --> 00:23:34.559
geek squad people are tech support people. It's basically somebody

393
00:23:34.559 --> 00:23:38.079
that if you have an issue with your device, you're

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00:23:38.160 --> 00:23:41.799
going to talk to and they can fix it. They

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00:23:41.839 --> 00:23:43.920
can get viruses off your device.

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New Year - Let's Get Down to Scam Basics

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New Year - Let's Get Down to Scam Basics

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