Scammers Are All Around Us and a Special Session Warns Residents in Carpinteria
CARPINTERIA, Calif. – The offer of a new phone deal. The warning of an unpaid bill. Romantic talk that leads to a loan – it can all be a terrible scam if you are not paying attention.
Those warnings were put out in a special presentation by the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department to a group in Carpinteria.
"Yeah I've have been scammed before. I was interested in all the different ways you can be scammed and be alert to that," said Carpinteria resident, Doreen Naulhardt.
The demographics do not matter. It's all in how you either see the red flags or miss them.
Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Deputy, Erica Pereyra, gave the examples and offered help. Demographics did not matter.
"They go across the board, but we do see seniors targeted a lot more," she said. "We've seen an uptick at the beginning of the year, both person-to-person contact over the phone and text messaging. It's been a multitude of things."
The way you are contacted can vary, but the goal of the scammer is to get to your money through information you provide or have you send them money thinking you are clearing up a debt.
One of the pieces of advice that was given is, if you are getting an unsolicited call or text message you need to be leery about why you are getting it at all.
"I think the biggest thing is try to understand and get a gauge of the urgency. The higher the urgency the more likely it is to be a scam," said Pereyra.
Advice was given on different scamming techniques and ways to pause and verify what's going on. One was to go to the source of the actual financial demand, such as a toll road company or what may be a phoney fundraiser.
Naulhardt said, "don't call that number, don't click on any links, but get the number off the bank cards or the number off your bank statement. Several of the ones she had mentioned, it happened to my friends."
There are many resources to report and stop fraud through the Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department, the District Attorney's special team and fraud departments at banks.
Naulhardt said, "I'm glad to know the Santa Barbara Sheriff's Department or fraud department can be helpful."
For more information contact the scam hotline at 805 568-2442.
