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.
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You should seek the services.
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Of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas.
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The information contained in this podcast is intended for informational
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purposes only and is not a substitute for individual professional
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legal advice. The podcast information was carefully compiled from vetted
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sources and references. However, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the
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elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to
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a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen
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show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their
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loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific time on
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K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and
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her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips on
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how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now
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here is your host, Joyce Petrowski.
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Good Morning, everybody, Welcome, to let's talk about scams. My
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name is Brian Watson and I have the pleasure of
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filling in for Joyce Petrowski this week and for the
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next two weeks as well.
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I am a community.
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Outreach specialist for Rose Resources Outreach to safeguard the elderly,
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and we are in the prevention business. We want to
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prevent people from being scammed. We run in a circle
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of people that see the terrible effects of people losing
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their money and it affects them emotionally, physically, financially, and
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are extremely passionate about people being protected from these nasty
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scammers that are out there. So today's episode is sometimes
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we have to intervene and let me start out with
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this question. How many of you out there have seen
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the show What Would You Do? On ABC. It's a
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show hosted by John Quinonez. It's been on for a
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very very long time, and they put people in like scenarios.
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It's one of those shows with hidden cameras and they'll
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set up in a restaurant or grocery store or out
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on the street and they use actors and they set
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up these scenarios to put people in an awkward situation.
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A lot of them are very common. Is like someone
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being mean, like a mom being mean to her kids,
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or an employer being very mean to an employee.
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At a grocery store.
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Or sometimes it's a bullying episode where someone's being bullied
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and they want to see if someone will intervene. I
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watched one recently where they set up in a diner,
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a little coffee shop diner, and these people were put
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water on the ground and were pretending to slip and fall,
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and they were trying to get the patrons, the customers,
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to you know, back up their story and lie to
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the owners of the restaurant. So it's a fun show.
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It's it's also very awkward because they show the people
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debating whether to intervene or to step in. But they
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play off these scenarios and it's really a case steady
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on human nature. At what point would we intervene or
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do we just stick to ourselves because there's a risk,
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you know, if you intervene, things could go bad, right,
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the safest thing a lot of times is not to
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do anything.
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So it's a great show. It's been on for a
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very long time because.
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It's entertaining, but it also gives us a view into
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you know how we work as human beings. So I
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had a recent experience that could have been an episode
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of what would you do? And actually, if the hidden
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cameras had come out, I would have been like, yep,
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you got me. I could see that. So this is
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what happened. This was sometime last fall. I accompanied my
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mother to a doctor's appointment. And it was a very
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small waiting room and everyone's like tightly packed in chairs,
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and you could kind of hear everything, so.
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You just try to mind your own business.
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But there was a gentleman sitting across from me, and
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he's on his cell phone and he called a phone number.
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You could tell.
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He said, this is so and so, and I'm returning
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a phone call about a purchase. And I started listening,
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even though I was trying not to. But he's on
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his cell phone in a small waiting room, and I
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could hear what's going on. And about a minute into
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his call, I jumped up out of my chair. I
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looked at him and his wife and I said, you're
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being scammed. And then I looked at the wife. I said,
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your husband is being scammed. You need to hang up
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the phone. And they were both a little surprised and
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he hung up the phone. Now, just because I do
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scam prevention for a living, this is not normal for me.
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And in fact, in two years of working part time
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for Rose, this is the first time I've ever interrupted
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a scam.
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Phone call in progress. But this is what happened.
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This potential victim in this case received a voicemail saying
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that his credit card had been used to purchase a
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very expensive video game system from a big box store.
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And the what they want to do is they want
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to confirm that it's legitimate. Well, of course it's not
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legitimate because this person didn't buy it. But the whole
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thing's a scam. And they say, sir, you know your
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credit card is going to be charged like eight hundred
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nine hundred dollars if do you want to reverse it? Oh, yeah,
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I didn't buy that. I didn't buy that. And what
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they do is they start walking you through providing all
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your personal information. So in this case, they first asked
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for his mailing address, so they need that for credit cards,
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and then eventually they get to the point, you know,
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the billing zip code, your billing addressed. Then they asked
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for your credit card number to confirm and y'll ask
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for everything. And when I heard this gentleman sitting in
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the waiting room providing his mailing address for his credit card,
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I knew he was being scammed, so I had to intervene.
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So I knew about this scam because my mother received
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two of these phone calls the prior weekend, and she
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told me about those two phone calls. And then, remember,
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one of the things that Joyce and I talk about
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all the time is having a phone a friend. So
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when my mom gets a scam email, scam phone call,
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or anything, she lets me know one because I'm in
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the fraud prevention business, but two, I'm her son and
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I help, you know, keep an eye out for her.
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My dad's the same way. He forwards me emails. He
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asks me I'm his phone a friend as well. So
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what if I was wrong and this man was not
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being scammed, Well, he could have yelled at me and
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said mind your own dang business. His wife could have
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yelled at me. I could have everybody in this waiting
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room could have been looking at me and thinking, who's
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this guy that needs to mind his own business? And
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I would have been stuck there waiting until my mom
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got called and it would have been very uncomfortable.
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I mean, I could have gotten kicked out of the
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office if I was wrong.
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Maybe it you know, it could not have been It
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could have ended really well. But here's the point, and
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that's the title of the show today. Sometimes we have
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to intervene, and in this case it was the right thing.
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I took a chance and it all worked out. So
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this particular scam about a fake charge, it's very effective
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on people who I like to call rule followers.
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What is a rule follower?
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Well, a rule follower is a law abiding citizen who
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always tries to do the right thing.
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And just they're just good people.
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And the problem is, rule followers get in trouble by
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scammers because if you're a procrastinator and you're a deadbeat
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and you don't follow the rules of civilization, it's hard
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to get you in a scam. But rule followers are
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very susceptible to being scammed. So what else do rule
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followers do?
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Well?
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Rule followers pay their bills on time a lot of times.
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Even early rule followers put their shopping carts in those
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corrals at the grocery store. Rule followers clean up their
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table at a fasthood restaurant.
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They don't leave a mess. Okay.
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I love rule followers. I'm a rule follower. My wife's
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a rule follower, and it's just you know. So that's
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why this scam works. You know, scammers rely on rule
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followers to return phone calls. So you know, you see
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your phone, you had a voicemail. Oh okay, this is
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a big box store and you ordered a six hundred,
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eight hundred dollars gaming system. Call us if you don't
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want it. Well, what's a rule follow We're going to do.
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A rule follower is going to call these the number
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back on the number provided, trusting that it's the big
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box store. And that's how it works. It's a normal
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human reaction to say I didn't buy that gaming system.
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All right, So how do you prevent getting scammed in
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this thing? You need to keep your wits and you
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need to resist the urge to respond immediately. Joyce and
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I always talk about time is your friend.
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Okay.
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When we show our anatomy of a scam infographic, right
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in the middle of it is urgency. The scammers want
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you to react quickly and move quickly, not to to
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anybody else, not think about it. Okay, we want to
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do everything very slow and methodical when it comes to scammers.
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So if you get a call or voicemail about a
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large purchase somewhere, and like I said, it could be
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a video gaming system at a big box store. Or
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my dad recently got an email claiming to be Norton
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and they were going to charge him five hundred dollars
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for three years of some service. You if they call you, you
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hang up the phone. If you get a voicemail, don't
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use the number that they provide, Okay, just delete that email.
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What you do is you contact the store directly through
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a verified number. So you you go to the company's website,
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the legitimate website that you found on your own, and
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you find their contact or you could go to the
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store itself, okay, but never ever ever use the number
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provided by the scammer.
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Okay.
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That's the clue, you know, Like I've talked about before,
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if it's your bank that's claiming to call you about something,
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you pull out your ATM card, your debit card, flip
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it over and call the number on the back. So,
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because that's the deal. If you use the number provided
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by the scam or, you are falling right into their trap.
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So here's the deal. We have to have a healthy
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level of skepticism when it comes to every email or
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text message or voicemail that comes in. You have to
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react slowly and methodically to prevent being scammed. And you know,
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never be afraid to contact a trusted friend or a
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family member. You don't have to react right away. Call
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up your son, your daughter, your brother, your sister, a
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neighbor and just say, hey, I got this scary voicemail
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that said I bought this expensive product. I don't know
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it's legitimate or not, so react really slowly. That's that's
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the key. So please share this information today. This scam
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is very common and it's cheap and easy to do,
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so share this video. Please go to our Facebook page.
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We are on Facebook Roseadvocacy dot Org. Just follow us
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and you get these these tips that we send out.
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If you're on LinkedIn, I'm a big LinkedIn fan. We're
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on LinkedIn as well. And the big thing that we do,
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and I talk about this every week when I close
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out the episode, is sign up for our monthly email.
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Go to Roseadvocacy dot Org. It's scrolling across the bottom
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of the screen right now and right on that front page,
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you can sign up for our monthly newsletter. All we
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need is your name in your email, very simple, and
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you will get an email once a month, and then
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we also send something out on Tuesday mornings. It's a
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very abbreviated version and it's just good tips. And then
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when you get these emails, share it with your friends,
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and then even better, have them sign up and then
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have their friends sign up. These scammers are relentless. And
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the thing that bothers me the most about being in
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the scam prevention business is people do not have the
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same urgency that I have and the Joyce has, and
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the members of our board and the members of our
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advisory committee have when it comes to scams. We see
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it every single day, and so many people aren't just
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are not doing enough. So it minimums sign up for
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our monthly email like it's free, and if you don't
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like it, you can cancel it and we won't be offended.
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But I know you won't cancel it because it's just
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good information. Get your neighbors, your friends, family, everyone to
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sign up. And because that's what I've learned being in
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law enforcement and being in the nonprofit world. The last
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couple of years is these scammers aren't going anywhere or
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anywhere soon. And these scams keep repeating, and then they
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come up with new ones, and they're very good. They