Story originally printed in the Tomah Journal or online at www.tomahjournal.com
Published - Sunday, May 18, 2008
Scams and fraud program set for Friday
Lieutenant Mark Nicholson of the Tomah Police Department will be giving a presentation at the Kupper-Ratsch Senior Center on Friday on the dangers and warning signs of scams and frauds.
The presentation will begin at 1 p.m. The Senior Center and Police Department said that all are welcome to attend the event. Nicholson said that many of the scams people face today are internet and e-mail related. He will address issues such as identification theft, telemarketing scams, home improvement fraud and get rich quick schemes. While the public is invited to attend, seniors and the elderly will be a major target of the presentation.
“A lot of these scams go directly to (seniors) because they don’t have someone looking over their finances,” Nicholson said. “I also want to impress on people that it is not just the elderly getting scammed.”
Senior Center Director Delia Duncan has seen scams affect people. She said that she knows an elderly person who has paid for magazines through the year 2020.
“What I tell my seniors is that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is,” Duncan said.
Another common scam that Nicholson will address is when an individual receives a check in the mail and is asked to cash it and keep a portion of the money. In these scams, Nicholson said, it turns out to be a worthless check. He said that he has also seen e-mails that threaten the life of the recipient unless an amount of money is paid.
“A lot of these scams look legit,” Nicholson said. “It is pretty much impossible to catch these people.”
All stories copyright 2006 Tomah Journal and other attributed sources.