Why words matter when we talk about scams

0:01 This program is designed to provide general information with regards to the subject matters covered. This information is given with the understanding that neither the hosts, guests, sponsors, or station are engaged in rendering any specific and personal medical, financial, legal, counseling, professional service, or any advice. You should seek the services of competent professionals before applying or trying any suggested ideas. 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, Rose Resources outreach to safeguard the elderly cannot guarantee that you will not fall victim to a scam. Let's talk about scams. It's the must listen show for anyone who wants to protect themselves and their loved ones from scams. Every Tuesday am Pacific time on K four HD Radio, Joyce Petrowski, founder of Rose, and her guests will provide valuable insights and practical tips on how to recognize and protect yourself from scams. And now here is your host, Joyce Petrowski. Hi, I'm David saying active mentally, thank chess. Those are all very important things.

1:25 I'm seventy two, but I'm going to keep on learning. I'm going to keep on movement. I'm going to keep on living my life. Healthcare for David's next move learn more at archwel health dot com. Good morning, everybody. My name is Brian Watson. I'm filling in for Joyce Petrowski and thanks for tuning into Let's Talk about Scams. We are going to talk today about the words that we use, and the title of today's show is why words matter when we talk about scams. So I am a huge Simpsons fan. Simpsons fan, the TV show on Fox. It has been on for a long time. It's like the longest running show on TV. That's and it's not as good as it used to be, I'll admit that, but I'm still a huge Simpsons fan.

2:09 But I started watching The Simpsons when I was in college. And if you know anything about the Simpsons is you know it's a comedy, but it's very irreverent and they will make fun of everybody and everything. There is nothing that's off limits. So I've always appreciated that sense of humor and the writer's ability to poke fund poke fun at everyone. So a few years ago, it was season thirty three to be exact, there was an episode where a phone scammer calls Grandpa Simpson and on the phone call, it's he's told that his grandson Bart is in jail and he needs to pay ten thousand dollars to the authorities to get Bart out of jail. It's the classic grandparent scam that Joyce and I have talked about on this show. And so in the episode, Grandpa sends the ten thousand dollars and then his son Homer finds out, and of course Homer is not happy about it. And in the episode, Homer says all the things you never say to someone who lost money in a scam, and I mean, it's way over the top, you know. I mean that's the thing with the Simpsons does. It's over the top, and it's like the worst things you could say.

3:30 So what did Homer say? He said, I would I would have never fallen for that. Everyone knows that's a scam. And then what were you thinking? You know, it's all the terrible things you say to a victim. So, you know, the episode made its point in trying to prove, you know, trying to have a little bit of humor and a really awful crime. But I liked it because it brings scams into the spotlight. Anytime we can talk about out scams, talk about the fraud that's out there, it's a good thing because the frustrating part about doing what we do is we keep hearing about people that lose money. I in the map past month, I have interacted with three people who either lost money or in the process of losing money, and it's extremely frustrating. It just seems to never end. But we got to keep fighting. So it got me thinking the words we choose in this field is they really do matter. And it's not about being politically correct. It's not the word place. But what we need to do is focus the blame on the criminal and not the victim. Too often in fraud prevention we focus on the victim and what they did or didn't do, but you know, far too often it's the blame for this fraud is directed at the victims rather than the criminals.

5:02 We say things like Grandpa fell for a romance scam, when in reality, a criminal targeted, manipulated, and exploited this person, or we say something like she lost money in a tech support scam. Well, in reality, the money was stolen, it was not lost, it was not willingly given away. I've been guilty of using this language on many occasion. Occasions I've said so and so fell for a scam. I mean, even in our intro for this radio show, it says, you know, this advice will not guarantee that you won't, you know, fall for a scam. You know.

5:45 And I know I'm being picky and I'm not trying to, you know, you know, be too hard on ourselves, but these matters, you know, even victims say these words. You know, I met someone earlier this month and she specifically said she fell for a scam. It happened to be the publisher's clearing house scam, which we're going to talk about soon because that thing keeps coming back as well. But this language is deeply ingrained in our culture. So today I've noticed, and I'm making an effort. I'm trying to be more intentional in the words, so that I choose when I interact with victims and when I do presentations and when I do radio shows like this, you know, like to give you an example. We've covered the term pig butchering multiple times on this show. Reminder, pig butchering, it's when scammers approach people in one way or another, almost always online, sometimes through a romance scam, sometimes through a family or friend, and they get you excited about the possibility of investing in cryptocurrency, and then what happens is is it's called pig butchering because they get you to they look at you as a pig. They get you to invest all the money you have. They don't kill you physically, they kill you financially. They fatten you up for the slaughter like a farmer would do with a pig. Now there's this big debate, especially online places

7:22 like LinkedIn where us fraud fighters that we don't like this term. You know, the good thing about pig butchering is it gets people's attention. When I do a presentation, people their eyes light up and they look up when I say pig butchering. But you know, it's it's not good because we're focusing the victor, focusing the attention on the victim and almost blaming them and calling them pigs. It's awful. So a more appropriate term that I've started to use is cryptocurrency investment fraud. I know the FBI is using this term, so I've been I've been trying to do that. I'll mention pig butchering once, but then quickly transition to cryptocurrency investment fraud. You know, and some of my fellow fraud fighters, we're even going as far as not to use the term scammer why because it doesn't sound as bad as a criminal. And others have started using a term romance fraud instead of romance scam.

8:20 So there's all these little, just slight variations where we're just trying to show a little more respect to the victim and focus the attention where the attention needs to be focused on these awful, ruthless financial predators that are stealing money from us. AARP initiated a campaign called Words Matter, and the whole point of it is to change the societal narrative around this financial fraud by eliminating this victim blaming language. So the movement is trying to urge public media, law enforcement to shift that focus from the victim to the criminal. And you know why, you know, say nicer words.

9:06 But more importantly, the goal of this campaign is to encourage reporting. If we inadvertently blame the victims or maybe blame them for part of it, it keeps them from speaking up, and these crimes continue. You know, the numbers keep going up every year. Joyce has shared these numbers. I've shared these numbers, but they're really hard. The really bad part is only a fraction of the actual crimes are being reported. You know, some people think it's you know, only five, ten or fifteen percent. Most crimes go unreported because people are embarrassed, people don't know who to report to.

9:48 There's so many different options. They figure what's the point, or they're just so overwhelmed and they don't have time, and they're going through another financial crisis. They just they don't want to bring up the trauma of losing money. So when we change that narrative, it really empowers victims to contact the authorities and seek support. I mean, I spoke to a lady last week who's eighty nine years old, and she said, I am embarrassed, and you know, it took her a long time to get to that point, and I was very proud of her, and you know, I just reassured her. I said, you know, look I've met a lot of people who have lost money, and you're not the only one, and it takes a lot for you to come to that realization. You know that you lost money, and I just try to encourage her, but it's horrible. So here's some of the like improved wording that we can use just as an example. So instead of saying how much money did you give them?

10:50 We can say how much did the criminals steal? See what we did? We focused the attention on the criminal. Instead of saying something like scam are so clever, they tricked you, we can say a criminal stole your money through a web of lies and deceit. And then the last one I want to share right now. Instead of saying, how could you fall for that? You know the thing that Homer did in the Simpsons episode, or didn't you see the warning flags? We can say this isn't your fault. You experienced a crime. So see what we did. The wording is not completely different. We're acknowledging what's going on, but we're focusing the attention on the criminal. Act. Monthly, I get to write articles for the Green Valley News.

11:43 It's a newspaper in southern Arizona, south of Tucson, and the column is called fraud Fire. And you know, I've looked back and I've noticed some of the terms that I've used are the ones we talk about today, you know. And I'm and I'm not blaming myself or I'm not bare for what I said before, because it's all accurate. But we can all improve. We can all get better at this. And as you know, as someone who's involved in fighting fraud, I know I can get better, and I want to get better for the main purpose of focusing the blame on the criminals. So I promise everyone out there, when I write future articles, I'm just going to review them one last time and say, could this be improved? Where's the focus? Am I blaming the victim even a slight bit when I shouldn't and focus all the attention on the criminal? All right? That's all I have today. I hope you enjoyed it. We really want you to share this information. If you learn something today on this radio show, send the link to a friend or a family member. Tell them, Look, it's only fifteen minutes to your time, and it's well worth it. Share these videos because if they just set up on the Internet and no one watches them. The criminals win. Do your part today. It's free, only takes a few clicks.

13:07 Tell your friend, hey, do Brian just talked about you know the language you use for criminals. I think you'll get something out of it. And please sign up for our mailing list. Our mailing list keeps growing and we love that. Rosadvocacy dot Org. You go on the landing page, scroll down to the bottom, there's a blue box where you can sign up for our mailing list. And it's an email that comes out once a month and at the beginning of the month, and then every Tuesday morning we give you a little snippet, something more bite sized. It's just much shorter. The whole point of this is we have to keep scam prevention on our mind all the time, because if we don't and we get lazy about it, that's when the criminals have a chance to get us. And all of us are going to be confronted by these criminals at one time or another, it happens to all of us. Need to be prepared. It's like doing practice. It's like going to football practice or track practice. We have to constantly be practicing. How what we're going to do. When a scammer, email, phone call, text message, or something on social media comes after us, we will be We're ready to respond. And you know, especially look out for anybody out there who lives by themselves.

14:24 Those are the people I really worry about. You know. Invest in your neighbors, your family, your friends. Make sure everyone out there is being taken care of. All right, everybody, thank you for listening. I'm going to be back next week as well with another message. It's an honor to fill in for Joyce, and we'll see you next week on Let's talk about scams. Well, that's all the knowledge for this episode. Tune in every Tuesday at eight am Pacific time on KFOURHD Radio at kfoorahd dot com as Joyce explores a variety of knowledge. So you have the power to make scam protection your healthy habit and until then, feel free to reach out to Joyce and Let's talk about scams.