Scott started by telling us how his introduction to Rotary was when he was a Boy Scout and the Rotary Club sponsored his troop. He said they had the most active and decorated troop in Scouting at the time. Scott began his talk on financial elder abuse by speaking to what his company had done to help prevent fraud and train those most vulnerable to it. First Financial Bank has a “Fraud Buster” program to help catch fraud through targeted training which has been very successful. In 2014, in the first year of the program, they were able to stop $265,000 in fraudulent transactions. This had increased to over $2,000,000 in 2016 and again to $6,313,000 in 2019. They have improved in the area of stopping fraud, but the numbers have also increased due to many more attempts by the perpetrators.

Scott said the target group are those in their 70’s and 80’s who live alone, are worried about money, are lonely, and may be suffering from early-stage dementia. This group is more susceptible to scams and so become the preferred prey of these con artists. Scott suggested that every elderly person needs to have a responsible person with access to their accounts, at least to be able to monitor their activity. He said those of us with elderly parents should talk with them and make sure they have the additional oversight to help prevent scams from occurring.

There are several common scams criminals use to defraud the vulnerable. These include the Lottery Scam, where a person is informed they have won a substantial amount of money in a lottery and they only have to pay the taxes in order to collect the winnings. Sometimes a caller pretends they are with the IRS and tells the person they owe back taxes or a penalty. They may ask for the person’s Social Security number for “verification”. The caller ID will even show IRS. They will normally ask for the payment to be made via gift card. Many scams start with an email asking the person to click on a link, which will then load spyware or malware onto the person’s computer which they can use to take control and begin harvesting personal information like bank and credit card information. Sometimes the scam begins with a wrong number that leads to a conversation and then several more until the person is duped into thinking they have a boyfriend or girlfriend. They will then be asked to supply travel expenses so that they can meet. Scott said he knew of one elderly lady who had gone to the airport three times to meet a boyfriend who was never there. Another scam is the Mexico scam, where a grandparent receives a call from their “grandson” who is in a Mexican jail scared to death and needs money wired to him so he can get out. The caller will have stalked the family on Facebook for long enough to know that the grandchild is actually in Mexico, the names and nicknames of family members, and other pertinent information so the scam sounds plausible. The grandparent will be told to please not tell the parent so as to keep the young man out of trouble. Scott said he had a grandparent, who he knew well, come to the bank asking to wire money to Mexico. Luckily, he recognized the scam for what it was, and was able to contact the grandson on his cell phone. He was in Mexico but had not called his grandfather and was in no kind of trouble. Sharing too much information on social media can put one at risk for being the target of a scam. The more the scammers can find out about you the easier it is for them to pull off their con job.

These scams can happen to people of any age. There are protections you can get such as controls on your debit card where you can turn the card off and on yourself using an App in case the card is lost or stolen. You can also get text alerts for any suspicious activity on your account. Scams are not limited to personal attacks. Many businesses have found themselves at risk because an employee falls victim to a phishing attack and clicks on a link they should not have. This could lead to a ransomware attack or worse. Many times the result will not be immediately apparent as the attackers simply gain access to the employee’s screen and can see everything they do. They then study and find the right time and way to stage their cyberattack. Scott said that everyone must be trained and educated on how to not fall victim to an attack. Scott related how his business sends monthly test emails to see who is not following the training and clicks when they shouldn’t. That employee is then retrained on proper procedures. A newer scam is the established vendor scam. In this the attacker gains access to a vendor’s client list and sends out an invoice that looks legitimate but directs the funds transfer into the attacker’s account. As the email invoice looks totally credible, it takes a diligent employee to recognize and verify the change in routing. Scott said his bank helped stop most of a $5 million fraud of this type on a land transaction. Checks are also a target of fraud, with scammers willing to pay an employee above face value for a check which they then “wash” and change to a much larger amount. If they are proficient in this fraud it is very hard for a bank to catch unless they are familiar with the company and their normal payroll and notice the abnormality. It is always smart to have a relationship with a bank where they are a partner to your business and can recognize when things are not right.

Scott was appointed by Governor Greg Abbott to the Texas Open Committee, where he and several other business leaders and CEO’s across the State were tasked to send plans to the Governor for reopening the Texas economy in a safe manner. These plans were reviewed and amended by a panel of prominent medical professionals and became the Governor’s Open Texas Phase One plan. Scott said he was honored to be able to play a part and to serve in this important capacity during this crisis. He said the plan was focused on protecting our most vulnerable population, increasing testing and implementing contact tracing, and using active cases and hospitalization rates to measure the effectiveness of the plan versus simply the number of positive tests. We can all be glad that Scott was asked to play a part in this process.

As I was typing up this review, I received a text message that appeared to be from Chase Bank with a warning about my account. When I opened it there was a letter that looked legitimate stating that the Patriot Act required that the bank gather more information on their clients. The url associated with the message was not Chase Bank and the grammar in the last sentence was suspect. It was an obvious scam and I did not click on the link provided. The threats posed by scammers are real and we must all be diligent, or we will become victims ourselves. As Scott said, know what to look for and help those who are more susceptible.

You can watch Scott's presentation here via the recorded meeting.

 

or link to the Zoom page which includes all of the past recorded sessions

 

 

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