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| Program teaches seniors to recognize scams |
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| Written by John Saiz / Patterson Irrigator / | |
| Wednesday, 30 January 2008 | |
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By the time Patterson resident Jane Smith realized her niece was scamming her last year, she had lost nearly $40,000. Smith (not her real name) reported the incident to Patterson Police Services in June. Her niece has not been found, and the money Smith spent a lifetime saving has not been recovered. To stop crimes like that from happening, Patterson Police Services gave a presentation at Patterson Senior Center on Jan. 23 on financial scams targeting seniors. “That money’s been drunk away,” said Detective Dave Hickman of Patterson Police Services. Most of the presentation consisted of a video produced by the state Office of the Attorney General. It explained that seniors are often the targets of con artists because older people tend to have the most money. “Just with your driver’s license number, I could get $120,000 of credit up in six hours,” Hickman told the audience. Police Chief Tyrone Spencer said his office receives about two suspicious mail reports each month. The letters often claim a recipient has won the Canadian Lottery, and that if they send a certain amount of cash — usually in the thousands — to an African address, they can receive their winnings. Hickman said a Patterson man had fallen victim to that scam. After initially sending the thieves thousands of dollars, they asked for more several times, and he gave it to them each time. He warned attendees never to send money up front. If someone asks for money before providing a service, it is a strong indicator it is a scam. Police suggested that anyone who gets a suspicious letter should shred it. In addition, con artists have been known to assume false identities to get to their targets. The video gave an example of criminals dressing up as servicemen to gain access to a victim’s home and get the victim’s trust. A woman recounted that she willingly gave thieves about $5,000 because she thought they were with her furnace company. They told her she needed to fix her air conditioning unit, but she never heard from them again after she gave them the money. Hickman said a legitimate contractor typically asks for only a small amount of the total cost before work is complete, and people should check for a contractor’s license with the city or county. Information also is available on the Internet at the Contractors State License Board Web site: www.cslb.ca.gov. As far as police can tell, most Patterson residents appear to be avoiding the scams. While they get regular reports of people receiving suspicious mail, they have only received three reports of a successful financial scam that targeted seniors in the past two years. However, it still happens. Judy Ostrander, 64, said at Wednesday’s presentation that she had reported that someone had stolen some of her checks around Christmas and spent about $6,000 at a Florida furniture store and an electronics store. “It was a shock,” Ostrander said. “I wanted to check my account after buying things for Christmas, and it said I had zero.” She suspects the man who stole from her had been a neighbor’s son. She had invited the family to dinner and believes the man went into her bedroom and stole some checks. As far as Ostrander knew, the man has never been arrested. Her bank was willing to recoup the stolen money, but it was a stressful experience, Ostrander said. After freezing the account that had been tampered with, the bank accidentally deposited some of Ostrander’s money in the inaccessible account instead of the new one, resulting in a couple of bounced checks. “You don’t think about anyone doing something like that,” she said. To reach John Saiz at the Irrigator, call 892-6187 or e-mail him at This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
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